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Dimensions

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An Atlas of Food and Agriculture

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Dimensions

NEED

An Atlas of Food and Agriculture

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome, Italy

This On®

This book, issued on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, has been prepared with financial support from:

British Overseas Development Administration
Ministère français des Affaires étrangères
Ministerio español de Agricultura. Pesca y Alimentación
Ministry of Agriculture. Nature Management and Fisheries,
and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
Italian National Committee for celebration of the 50th Anniversary
of the United Nations

Editor

Tony Loftas

Assistant to the Editor/Principal researcher

Jane Ross

Contributing editors

Geoffrey Lean, Don Hinrichsen, Mary Lean, Christine Graves, Peter Lowrey
Editors

Jane Lyons, Helen de Mattos-Shipley, Felicity Greenland,

Julia Holgate, Anna Sánchez

Principal technical advisers

Tim Aldington, Robert Brinkman, William Clay, Stephen Oembner,
Jacques Du Guerny, Serge Garcia, James Greenfield,

Simon Hocombe, Simon Mack. Jorge Memies, Franco Pariboni,
Richard Perkins, Wim Sombroek, Jeff Tschirtey

Other technical advisers

Abdolreza Abbassian, Nikos Alexandratos, Murthi Annishetty,
Sebastiao Barbosa, Christian Chikhani, Adele Crispoldi-Hotta, Guido Gryseels,
Ali Arslan Giirkan. Klaus Janz. Panos Konandreas, Andrew Macmillan,
Miles Mielke, Berndt Miiller-Haye, Freddy Nachtergaele,

Christel Palmberg-Lerche, Paul Reichert, Ed Rossmiller, Roland Schúrmann,
Hermann Schmincke, Jan Slingenbergh, Jerzy Serwinski, Victor Villalobos,
Robin Wellcome, Chan Ling Yap

Many other FAO staff, too numerous to name individually, have also
assisted by virtue of their contributions to the work of the Organization and
advising on specific questions. The editors and compilers of the book have
also received significant assistance from other agencies and organizations
both within and outside the United Nations system including the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International
Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Bank, the World Food
Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch editions

French: Elizabeth Ganne, Anne Walgenwitz, Ros Schwartz, Myriam Boyden
Spanish: Daniel Nogués Duran. Dario Moreno Falcon
Italian: Ros Schwartz. Manuela Guastella. Luca Salice, Ernestine Shargool
Outch: Marion Drolsbach, Arme Hemmes, Aletta Stevens

Design

Ian Price

Cartography and diagrams

David Buries

Illustrations

Mikki Rain

FAO graphics and FAO photo research

Scott Grove, Alex Rossi, Nick Rubery, Giampiero Diana.

Giuditta Dolci-Favi, Joanna Maltby-Monaldini, Sergio Pierbattista,
Francesco Sponzilli (stamps, coins and medals)

Colour separations: Fleet Litho

Printed and bound in the UK by the KPC Group, London and Ashford, Kent

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, or transmitted, or
translated into a machine language without the written permission of the
publisher

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this
publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its
authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The designations "developed" and "developing” are intended for statistical
convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage
reached by a particular country, territory or area in the development process.

The stamps, coins and medals featured in the book are available through:
Money and Medals Programme, FAO, Rome, Italy

A Banson production

Prepared in cooperation with the Information Division,

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
by Banson

3 Turville Street, London E2 7HR
First published in 1995 by

the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
All rights reserved

Reprinted March and September 1996

Copyrighted material

FAO - 50 years on:

A celebration and a challenge

F ifty years ago there were 2 500
million people in the world. Today
there are an estimated 5 700
million, and in 50 years’ time, there may
be 8-10 000 million people to feed,
clothe and shelter. Every second, there
are three new mouths to feed.

When FAO was founded, the majority
of the world's population made their
living through agriculture and the
exploitation of natural resources. By the
turn of the century, the majority will live
in cities of the developing world.

The challenge is to meet the needs of
humanity now and into the future
without permanently damaging our life
support system.

In its first 50 years. FAO has much to
be proud of. Many people enjoy a better
quality of life because of its programmes.
However, there is no room for
complacency. The needs of increasing
populations, poverty, malnutrition, land
degradation, deforestation, pollution, loss
of biological diversity and the over-
exploitation of the oceans remind us that
no organization can rest on its laurels.
More than 1 000 million people live in
poverty which, with rapid population
growth, has taken its toll on the
environment No single organization or aid
agency can tackle these problems alone.

• We must seek better and sustainable
ways and means to meet and overcome
these challenges.

• We must reduce waste and improve
efficiency in t! e channels and systems
we use.

• We must work in more effective
partnerships.

• We must transform agncutture to
combine increased productivity with
sustainability of natural resources.

As the Minister responsible for the
British aid programme, I have been much
heartened by recent progress. The new
age of democracy in South Africa
heralded by the 1994 elections was.
without doubt, a highlight. India has
achieved remarkable improvements in
food security. And during a recent visit I
saw how. by providing training and
banking credit for destitute women, the
Bangladesh Rural Development
Committee had enabled nearly half a

million women to set up small rural
enterprises. These are the kind of
successes we must build on.

This book celebrating FAO's 50th
Anniversary is about the challenges past
present and future faced by communities
in countries like South Africa, India and
Bangladesh to improve the quality of
their lives. It aims to inform and educate:
awareness and consensus are vital tools
for alleviating poverty and tackling the
problems of the environment It presents
information In a way that is accessible to
all. It will, I hope, help a better
understanding of the issues and how we
might make our world a better place.

The UK is proud to have been one of
the countries that founded FAO. Its first
Director-General - Lord Boyd Orr - was
from Britain. He had helped formulate
the policies and programmes which,
despite the siege economy of the Second
World War, succeeded in doubling
agricultural production and improved

nutrition between 1939 and 1945. Since
then the UK has played an active part in
the evolution and activities of the
Organization. British and Commonwealth
expertise have made a substantial input
into FAO's projects and programmes.

At Rio, the governments of the world
agreed that the goal was “sustainable
economic and social development" -
economic growth and improved
quality of life with environmental
conservation. FAO has a key role to play.
Wo all have a role to play.

We are giving our own bilateral aid
programmes a sharper focus and clearer
objectives, and look for similar reforms
within FAO and the UN system. We are
keen to see the Organization adapt to the
changing environment and respond to the
membership’s priorities and demands.

I am very happy, therefore, that the
Overseas Development Administration
has been able to help support the
preparation of this book.

(HA

Awareness

and

consensus
are vital

The Rt Hon the
Baroness Chalker of
Wallasey

Minister for Overseas
Development
United Kingdom

DIMENSIONS OF Ni l I ' FOREWORD

Copyrighted material

Contents

3 Foreword

hv the Ri Hon the Baroness
Chalkcr of Wallasey, Minister for
Overseas Development, United
Kingdom

7 Introduction by Dr Jacques
Diouf, Director-General of FAQ

Origins ot 1 AO • 1 AO\ broad
mandate • Paving the wav to
food security • A brief history
of FAQ

E ood and people

tM Human nutrition: Key to

I health and development

What is a balanced diet?

• Nutrients and where to find
them • Energy requirements and
expenditure • Undernourishment
and malnutrition • Average daily
energy supply • Diet-related non-

5555iflkaBfi diseur

aM People and populations at risk

m Rural -nrh.in povrrtv indicators

• Gross national product and
tood security • («lobai retugees

• Africa in context • The spectre

ffl famine

Availability of food:

HQw countries compare

Low-income food-deficit
countries • loodcrops and

^ Jj Staple foods:

■ ■ I What do people eat?

The sources of food • Proportions
ot tood groups in average diets
• Complementary foods

Who are the food producers?

Population economically active in
agriculture • Division of labour
by gender • Farming systems in
the developing world

• Cultivators • Forest people

• Pasioralists ■ lishertulk

Impact of poverty on life

Bangladesh • Colombia

• Central African Republic

• T anzania • M ali

• the Philippines • Nepal

• Viet Nam • Uganda

Feeding the world:

The search for food
security

What is food security?

• Agriculture and population
projections • Pressures on
resources t International
Limkreiicc on Nutrition

Protect and produce

The soil

Soil limits agriculture • Soil
texture variation • Fertilizer use

• Typical soil profiles • World
soil resources • Agricultural
potential

Water:

A finite resource

Whrrr thr W Atrr is • The

hydrological cycle • Annual
water use • Water availability
and scarcity • Irrigation losses
• Percentage and area of land
irrigated • Salinization threatens
production

Restoring the land

Impact of soil erosion • Cilohal
status ot human-induced soil
degradation • Soil degradation
by area and type plus
major causes • Combating

soil erosion

K How many people can
the land support?

Critical countries • Cultivated
areas and gross land reserves

• Percentage total land area with
limitations to crop production

• World potential land use
capabilities • Making the best
llu: ol land

CONTENTS PIM1 NSJONS Ot NEED |a |

CONTENTS

Fish production and
utili/ation t Gontnhntnm of
fish to diet • Responsible
fishing • Fishing zones

• Fishery Commissions

• Top fishing nations • Top
marine catches

KZfi Aquaculture:

From hunter tn farmer

The growth of aquaculture

♦ ini.nni 5B5 alad
aquaculture • Top
aquaculture producers

CO Forests of the world

Global disiribmiim of forests

• Forest types • Projected
consumption of forest
products • loss of natural
torc.st cover

fifi Wealth from the wild

Vy Animal products • Plant
products • Services • What
are ft ires is worth?

• People and wildlife

• Feomnrism

fiA, Controlling pests

"m Species resistant to pesticides
t Worldwide locust
distribution f Pcsiicidc
safen* • Controlling the
desert locust • Change in
pesticide use

fifi Biological diversity

Number ot species: known
compared with estimated

• Number of species bv area

• Domesticated animals

.it risk

f± Sustainable agriculture
O O and rural development

Areas affected hv
atmospheric and coastal
pollution • Essential
ingredients for sustainable
development • Agenda 2 1
« Elements tor sustainable
agriculture and rural
development

Building the
global community

^ A family of nations:

■ fill ‘Haves 1 and ‘have nots*

Gaps in human development
• Income disparity
between die richest, and
poorest

World trade:

Ë Why is it important?

Share of agriculture in world
exports • World agricultural
exports • Share of
agricultural production and
merchandise exports

• Commodity prices

• Commodity indices

• Wheal • Rice • lute

• Shrimp • GA IT and the
World Trade Organization

• l.ffect of the U rumia v
Kound • Agricultural trade

^9 Food aid

■ Food aid recipients

• Cereal commodities as food
aid • Cereal imports of low-
income food-deficit countries

• World Food Programme
emergency operations

€% ^ Beating the debt burden

O Developing countries:

eaeB 35 ¡551 • Debt

as percentage gross national
product • Debt as percentage
foreign exchange earnings
• Dchr service • Per caput
debt • Heavily indebted
countries

The challenge of
drr food production

Agricultural research
personnel and expenditures:
developing and developed
countries • Changing
focus of agricultural
research and development

• Areas of genetic diversity

• I 'he agricultural research
net u .o r k

DIMENSIONS OF NEED CONTENTS

Copyrighted material

CONTENTS

Ç> £ J Biotechnology

€>' ' _ Major national gene hanks

• Achievements • Self-cloning
sauL .«.A , ini:-frc..sh rnm.mu-.s

• Cryopreservation • Fighting
cattle plague • Nitrogen -fixing
rice • Eradicating the New
World .screw worm

The view from space:

Building models of the world

How a remote sensing system
works • Satellites used tor remote
sensing • How a Géographie
Information System works • (iIS
in practice: the example of tsetse
tlv in Africa

Q Transfer of technology

"Tf Some technology transter
opportunities • Major FAQ
information systems and
databases • Regional cenrres and
organizations • Regional
networks and programmes

• Selected examples of tecTinical
cooperation among developing
countries

A question of commitment

Sr P Overseas aid Hows • Aid to

agriculture • Farmer participation
in agricultural extension

• Indicators ot rural poverty

Food and agriculture:
The future

Jj The right to food

B The most basic of human rights

• FAQ's work in support of the
right to food

a| ^ Agriculture in the
I w I twenty-first century

Food supplies by area • Major
crops in developing countries
• Share planted to modern wheat
varieties in developing countries
e Increasing yields • Water
• Fertilizer use in
developing countries • Rural
poverty • Kura I illiteracy

105

107

109

112

114

116

118

122

124

Sharing the worlds resources

National energy consumption
levels • Rates of change in food
production

Global warming

How the greenhouse effect works
*_ W.iJ- ill V ide

• Concentration of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere and their
contrihmion to global warming

The challenge of sustainability

l i\e root causes of unsustainable
practices • Drylands • Irrigated
land • Tropical forests • Hill and
mountain areas • Proposals for
progress • The Den Bosch

Fair and free trade

The Uruguay Round of trade
negotiations • Probable
evolution of net agricultural

Tapping the peace dividend

World military spending • Global
military expenditure and the
peace dividend • Total military
spending in developing countries

• A global tax tor development

Promises to keep

The challenges facing 1 AC)

• Promoting agriculture, forestry
and fisheries • Empowering food
producers and consumers • Using
natural resources sustainably

• building a global partnership

Index

Reference and data index

Further information

Selected reading

World map

A country-by-country reference

*â ^ ft The United Nations system

Principal organs of the UN and
Emv they are organized • Th~
Food and Agriculture
Organization ot the UN

contents

Introduction

I f understanding leads to compassion,
then my fervent hope is that this book
will help the reader understand the
principal issues involved in feeding the
world. It could make a difference to
800 million chronically undernourished
people. This book, published on the
occasion of FAO’s 50th Anniversary, is
not about the Organization as such but
the challenges that have largely
determined its agenda. They can best be
summarized in terms of inequality,
hunger and poverty.

The Organization that I have the
honour to lead is but a single agency
within the United Nations system. We are
trying our best, with the limited
resources made available by the
community of nations, to promote
improved nutrition and help developing
countries produce more food without
harming the environment. The issues
covered in this book touch billions of
people every day of their lives.

FAQ plays a unique role: its
international team of development
specialists tackle food and agricultural
problems not only from a global
perspective but also at regional and
national levels. Since It is at the service
of all its member nations, FAO Is
perfectly placed to act as a neutral
forum and to give objective advice to
governments. It encourages debate on
the important food and agricultural
issues described in this book. Thanks to
its network of representatives accredited
to over 100 member countries, the
Organization also keeps abreast of
environmental and socio-economic
change in every corner of the earth.

How FAO came into being

The origins of FAO can be traced back to
the pioneering efforts of the American
David Lubin who, In the 1880s, began
pressing for a better deal for the world’s
food producers. He recognized that
agriculture was at a disadvantage in
comparison with industry, commerce and
finance because farmers were not
effectively organized. He also realized
that international trade played such a
role in establishing prices that only a
global organization could defend

farmers’ interests satisfactorily. Lubin
found a patron in Italy's King Victor
Emmanuel III and in 1905 an
international meeting adopted the
Convention that established the
International Institute of Agriculture.

The work of the Institute was
essentially technical, but world events
led to a change in the initiative for
agricultural and socio-economic
development. Agriculture was profoundly
affected by the post- 1929 world
depression: nations proved unable to
solve the problems created by the
collapse in trade and mounting
agricultural surpluses. At the same time,
nutrition research was revealing more
about dietary requirements for health
and discovering widespread malnutrition
within even the most advanced countries
because of the inadequate consumption
of milk, vegetables, fruits and other so-
called “protective- foods.

The paradox of malnourishment at a

time when food surpluses were taxing
the stability of agriculture was analysed
in a celebrated speech to the League of
Nations by Stanley Bruce, a former prime
minister of Australia, on the basis of a
memorandum prepared by his economic
adviser Frank McDougall. Both men were
influenced by British nutritionist John
Boyd Orr.

The central message of Bruce's
address was that the League should
simultaneously assess the potential
benefits to public health from increased
consumption of “protective" foods and
the extent to which this might help solve
the agricultural crisis. Delegates realized
that this was an area where the League
might assume a constructive and
significant role.

Progress was halted, however, by the
outbreak of war and the collapse of the
League of Nations. But the idea was not
lost. As early as 1941, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, President of the United

The first
cause of
hunger and
malnutrition
is poverty

Or Jacques Diouf

Director-General of
the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the
United Nations

DIMENSIONS OF NEFI > INTRODUCTION

Copyrighted material

INTRODUCTION

Nations represented at
the United Nations
Conference on Food
and Agriculture, 1943

Australia

Belgium

Bolivia

Brazil

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cuba

Czechoslovakia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Ethiopia

France

Greece

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Iceland

India

Iran

Iraq

Liberia

Luxembourg

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Norway

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Philippine

Commonwealth

Poland

Union of South Africa
Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
United Kingdom
United States of
America
Uruguay
Venezuela
Yugoslavia

States, was speaking of the need for a
United Nations organization and calling
for '‘freedom from want".

In 1942. Frank McDougall, on a visit to
the United Slates, found a lively interest
in preparing for the food problems of the
post-war world. As a result he drafted a
second memorandum on the subject of
“a United Nations programme for
freedom from want of food", McDougall’s
proposal came to the attention of
President Roosevelt and the two men
met McDougall urged that food should
be the first economic problem tackled by
the United Nations. The following year.
President Roosevelt convened the United
Nations Conference on Food and
Agriculture at Hot Springs, Virginia, from
18 May to 3 June-

Attended by 44 governments, the
conference decided to establish a
permanent organization in the field of
food and agriculture, and set up an
Interim Commission for its preparation.
The work of this Commission led directly
to the meeting that began on 16 October,
1945, in Quebec City and brought FAO
into being as the first of the United
Nations specialized agencies.

FAO's broad mandate

In the preamble to the Constitution of the
fledgling organization, 44 nations
signalled their determination “to
promole the common welfare”. FAO
developed new ways to come to grips
with this broad mandate. Its first World
Food Survey, published the following
year, stated categorically that “it Is well
known that there is much starvation and
malnutrition in the world lyet) vague
knowledge that this situation exists is
not enough; facts and figures are needed
if the nations are to attempt to do away
with (amine and malnutrition".

FAO went on to pioneer systematic
data collection and analysis of the world
food situation, but information is only
one of the many areas in which FAO has
led the way in food and agriculture over
the past 50 years. The Organization has
been active in education and training,
rational use of natural resources,
environmental protection, participation of
small farmers in development planning,
the control of plant and animal pests and

diseases, the conservation of genetic
diversity and the promotion of
sustainable agriculture and rural
development.

When FAO was still young, the old
colonial empires disintegrated. As the
new nations gained independence, they
had to make fundamental public policy
decisions. Many countries opted to
favour industry as the engine of their
economies. The city became the symbol
of modernity par excellence and the rural
exodus began in earnest. Both trends
were to have negative consequences for
agriculture and food self-sufficiency.
FAO's constitutional commitment to
“bettering the condition of rural
populations” took on greater urgency
with the years as demand for food
expanded with populations and
production fell behind.

The food crisis of the early 1970s
showed governments, international
organizations and the public that it was
vital to have up-to-date information
permanently available on the supply
prospects of staple foods. Therefore, FAO
established the Global Information and
Early Warning System (GIEWS) in 1975.
This sophisticated instrument has since
issued more than 200 alerts on
deteriorating food situations Every day
analysts study dozens of indicators
which affect food supply. Satellite
images and weather station data show
how the growing season is progressing
in broad areas of the developing world.

In an emergency, ma)or aid donors and
humanitarian organizations are alerted.
Food aid can soon be on its way.

Paving the way to food security

“The first cause of hunger and
malnutntion is poverty". So declared the
1943 meeting in Hot Springs. II is still
true today. The countries that suffer
most from hunger desperately need
economic growth with, of course, a more
equitable sharing of the benefits. This is
why FAO stresses food security, the step
beyond food production and supply. Food
security is when all people have access
to the food they need tor an active and
healthy life. I believe that the only
feasible option for an early and
sustainable improvement in food

security is the enhancement of
agricultural productivity, particularly in
those countries that are both poor and
do not produce the food they need. The
key to such gains is efficient technology,
applied in a sustainable way to the food
crops that can make a difference. FAO
now has a new strategy called the
Special Programme on Food Production
for Food Security in Low-Income Food-
Deficit Countries. In 1996. there were 82
such countries.

FAO has also launched an Emergency
Prevention System for Transboundary
Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases
(EMPRES). While FAO has recognized
competence in both prevention of, and
emergency response to, such problems
as desert locust, African swine fever,
rinderpest and a host of other pests and
diseases, we are at the mercy of the
processes of alerts and mobilization of
resources, which inevitably take time.
EMPRES will do much to increase the
impact of FAO’s actions.

World Agriculture: Towards 2010,
FAO’s comprehensive analysis of
agricultural trends published in 1995,
predicts that the percentage of
chronically undernourished people in the
developing world will drop Irom today's
20 percent to just over 11 percent. But
even these impressive gains will not
suffice to guarantee food for all. In 2010,
hunger will still afflict an estimated
650 million people in the world, almost
as many people as live in the United
States and Western Europe combined.
Such predictions make FAO’s 50th
Anniversary an occasion for both
celebration and a renewal of our
commitment to fight against hunger and
poverty. They bring us back to the
important issues covered in this
anniversary book which I hope will
engage and concern all who read it.

Dr Jacques Diouf

Director-General

INTRODUCTION ,„.MINMOSM.| Ml,.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FAO

1 943 Forty-four governments, meeting in Hot
Springs. Virginia. USA, commit
themselves to founding a permanent
organization for food and agriculture

1945 First session of FAO Conference, Quebec
City, Canada, establishes FAO as
specialized UN agency

• Sir John Boyd Orr. British nutritionist,
is elected first FAO Director-General

• Washington, D.C. is designated
temporary site of FAO headquarters

• FAO has 42 members

1946 First World Food Survey gives
comprehensive picture of world food
situation

1947 Norris E. Dodd, US Under Secretary
of Agriculture, is elected second FAO
Oirector-General

• FAO Conference agrees to establish
FAO Council to keep under review
the state of food and agriculture in
the world

1948 First area agriculture survey covers Far
East and Latin America

• Indo-Pacific Fisheries Commission
established - first regional fisheries
body to be set up under the aegis of FAO

1949 International Rice Commission set up

• FAO participation in the Expanded
Programme of Technical Assistance
formally marks the beginning of the
Organization's field programme

1950 The first post-war World Census of

Agriculture is compiled, covering 65

countries

1951 FAO headquarters moves to Rome

1952 Transfer to FAO of the library of the
International Institute of Agnculture -
renamed the David Lubin Memorial
Library after the man who pioneered the
creation of the Institute in 1905

• Second World Food Survey finds

average calorie supply per person
remaining below pre-war level
• Desert Locust Programme is
formally launched

1 953 Philip V. Cardon, formerly of US

Department of Agriculture, is elected
third FAO Director-General

1955 A plant protection agency is set up in
Central America, part of a global
network dedicated to preventing pests
and diseases spreading through
international trade

1956 B.R. Sen, senior Indian diplomat, is
elected fourth FAO Director-General

1957 FAO launches a World Seed Campaign in
which 79 countries and territories
participate, culminating in the World
Seed Year of 1961

1958 FAO's first review of agriculture in
sub-Saharan Africa finds yields declining
because population growth reduces the
fallow period in shifting cultivation
below that required by the soil to
regenerate

1959 Initiation of UN Special Fund operations
puts FAO on road to becoming a major
world technical aid agency

1960 Freedom from Hunger Campaign is
launched to mobilize non-governmental
support

1961 FAO and Unesco embark on preparing a
Soil Map of the World to bring order to
international soil terminology and
nomenclature

1962 The FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius
Commission established, in 1961, to

set international food standards
becomes operational

1963 UN/FAO World Food Programme created
• Third World Food Survey, covering

95 percent of world population, finds 10-
15 percent undernourished and up to
half suffering from hunger, malnutrition
or both

1964 FAO/World Bank Cooperative Programme
is established to stimulate investment in
agriculture in the developing world

1965 A panel of experts is established to
study ways to protect endangered plant
genetic resources

1966 UN/FAO World Conference on Land
Reform emphasizes the need for an
integrated approach

A.H. Boerma, World Food Programme
Executive Director, is elected fifth FAO
Director-General

1968 First publication by FAO of Ceres, a
magazine providing worldwide coverage
of agricultural development and issues

1969 FAO releases Indicative World Plan for
Agricultural Development an analysis of
major issues for world agriculture in the
1970s and 1980s

1970 Second World Food Congress. The
Hague, calls on governments to increase
resources for development and to
channel a greater proportion through
international agencies

1971 Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is created

1972 UN Conference on the Human
Environment, Stockholm, asks FAO to act
to conserve the earth's agricultural,
forestry, fishery and other natural
resources

1954 FAO's Committee on Commodity

Problems draws up Guide Lines and
Principles of Surplus Disposal, used ever 1967
since by food aid programmes

DIMENSIONS OF NU l> INTRODUCTION

Copyrighted material

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FAO

1973 Office (or the Sahelian Relief Operation
(OSRO) is established to coordinate
emergency aid to famine victims in the
Sahelian zone of Africa

• Plan of Action for World Food Security,
adopted by FAO’s Council, calls for a
voluntary system of nationally held and
internationally coordinated food stocks

1988 The Africa Real-Time Environmental
Monitoring System (ARTEMIS) is
installed at FAO headquarters to process
satellite data on rainfall and vegetation

1974 UN World Food Conference in Rome
recommends the adoption of an
International Undertaking on World Food
Security

1975 Edouard Saouma, Director of FAO's Land
and Water Division, is elected FAO's
sixth Director-General

• FAO Conference establishes
Committee on World Food Security

• FAO has 136 members

1976 Technical Cooperation Programme,
financed from FAO funds, is established
to provide greater flexibility in
responding to urgent situations

• Formal launch of the Food Security
Assistance Scheme (FSAS), designed to
help developing countries formulate
national food security policies

1977 The Global Information and Early
Warning System (GIEWS) becomes fully
operational

1978 Fourth World Food Survey shows
that about 455 million people

are undernourished in the developing
world

• FAO Locust Control Programme
responds to a locust plague devastating
parts of Africa, the Near East and South-
West Asia

1979 World Conference on Agrarian Reform
and Rural Development (WCARRD),
meeting in Rome, adopts "Peasants'
Charter"

• Agriculture: Toward 2000 is published,
providing a prognosis for food and
agricultural production over the
following two decades

1980 First session of the FAO Commission on
African Animal Trypanosomiasis

• FAO concludes 56 agreements for the
appointment of FAO Representatives in
developing member countries

1981 The first World Food Day is celebrated
on 16 October by over 150 countries

1982 International Seed Information System is
inaugurated and a new associated seed
laboratory sends out 20 000 seed
samples during the year

1983 FAO Council endorses cooperative action
for plant health to develop techniques,
such as integrated pest control, suitable
for smallholders and poor farmers

• Forest Resources Information System
(F0R1S), containing computerized data
on the world's tropical forests, becomes
operational

1989 FAO Commission on Plant Genetic
Resources recognizes right of farmers in
the developing world to compensation
for use of indigenous germplasm In
plant breeding

1990 FAO Regional Conference for Africa
adopts the International Scheme for the
Conservation and Rehabilitation of
African Lands

• FAO reports to the UN Secretary-
General on the effect on marine
resources of large-scale driftnet fishing

1991 FAO/Netherlands Conference on
Agriculture and the Environment at
s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands,
discussed requirements for sustainable
agriculture and rural development as a
precursor to the United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED)

• International Plant Protection
Convention is ratified with 92 signatories

• FAO’s Screwworm Emergency Centre
for North Africa completes a successful
campaign to eradicate the pest in Libya

1992 UNCEO in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil

• FAO and WHO hold International
Conference on Nutrition in Rome which
approves a World Declaration and Plan
of Action on Nutrition

1984 World Conference on Fisheries
Management and Development, held in
Rome, provides first major follow-up to
the new regime for the world's oceans

1985 Fifth World Food Survey is published

• FAO Conference approves a World
Food Security Compact which outlines a
plan for achieving a comprehensive food
security system

• FAO has 158 members

1986 AGROSTAT, the world's most
comprehensive source of agricultural
information and statistics, becomes
operational

• Pan-African Rinderpest Campaign is
launched, operating in 34 countries

1987 FAO recommends safe levels for
radioactive contamination of food in
international trade

1993 Dr Jacques Dlouf is elected the seventh
Director-General of FAO

• FAO Conference reviews Agriculture :
Towards 2010, which states that despite
an increase in food production and food
security there are still 800 million
undernourished people in the world

1994 Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf
restructures FAO to support shifts in
priorities such as progressive
decentralization of staff away from
headquarters and a special programme
to grow more staple crops in low-
income food-deficit countries

1995 FAO is 50 years old

• A 50th Anniversary International
Symposium is held in Quebec City,
Canada, followed by a special
Ministerial Meeting on food security

• FAO has 171 members

10 INTRODUCTION I DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

Human nutrition: Key to
health and development

« WUQUC WPUUUM QU CQWEQ

Il «0MMUI R I AUMUTAim

The right to an
adequate diet is as
fundamental as
the right to life itself.
World Food Day, on
16 October every year,
is a symbolic
reminder of this right.

Pregnant women and
nursing mothers need
a higher calorie intake
than others in their
age group to provide
for their babies.

T o be healthy and active,
our diet (what we regularly
eat and drink) must he
adequate in quantity and
variety to meet our energy and
nutrient needs. Most foods
contain many different
nutrients; no single food,
except breast-milk, provides
all the nutrients required. The
best way, therefore, to ensure
the body gets all the necessary
nutrients is to eat a variety
of foods.

Nutrients are classified as
carbohydrates, fats, proteins,
vitamins or minerals. Water
and dietary fibre are also
essential. Each nutrient has
specific functions and is made
available to the body tissues
through the processes of
digestion and absorption.

How well foods are digested
and their nutrients absorbed
can be influenced in several
ways. For example, infections,
particularly those that
accelerate the passage of food
through the digestive system,
can reduce the body’s capacity
to absorb nutrients and
accelerate the loss of water
and body salts. The
combination of foods eaten
can also affect digestion and
absorption. Iron from animal
sources is usually well
absorbed, hut iron in plants is
generally not, because of the
presence of natural
compounds, such as phytates
in cereals and tannins in tea,
that inhibit iron absorption.
Other factors, such as an
increased vitamin C intake.

can enhance the absorption of
iron from plant sources.
Excessive dietary fibre can
interfere with the absorption
of some nutrients.

Nutrient requirements
vary between individuals
according to, for example,
age, gender, level of activity
and health. The ways in
which people meet these
requirements also vary. There
is no ideal or universal dietary
pattern and the body is
wonderfully adaptive.

From arctic tundra to
tropical forest, and from big
cities to remote islands,
various populations
demonstrate that human
nutritional needs can be met
by diverse ranges of
foodstuffs and dietary habits.

What is a balanced diet?

The Food Guide Pyramid is one
example of a national food guide.

Prepared for consumers in the
United States, the pyramid shows
the recommended proportions of
the various categories of food. It is
easy to see that for most
Americans, the daily food intake
should include a high proportion
of cereals, fruits and vegetables
whereas fats, oils and sweets are
best eaten in moderation.

Nutritional requirements vary
from person to person. Everyone
needs to pay attention to the
quality, quantity and diversity of
food sources to have a balanced
diet. Many countries have set or
suggest dictan, guidelines to help
people meet their nutritional
needs. Since there is no ideal
dietary pattern suitable for all
people, these guidelines must be
developed with a specific food
supply and population in mind.

FOOD AND PEOPLE l)l\ll SMONS Ol Nil,)

Nutrients and where to find them

Carbohydrates arc the basic
source of energy. They range
in complexity from simple
sugars to complex starches.
Sugars arc found in sweet
foods such as honey, and in
milk and fruits. Major sources
of starches include cereals,
root vegetables, pulses (beans,
lentils, peas) and some fruits
such as plantains and
bananas.

Dietary fats and oils are rich
sources of energy and provide
essential fatty acids. They can
be obtained from both
animals and plants. Animal
sources include fatty meats,
poultry such as duck and
goose, butter, ghee and oily
fish. Plant sources include
oilseeds (sunflower, safflower,
sesame), nuts and legumes
(peanuts, soybeans).

Proteins, which are long chains
of amino acids, form much of
the basic structural material of
the body; they are necessary
for its growth, functioning and
repair. The body can make

many amino acids but some,
called essential amino acids,
must be obtained from food.
Different foods contain varying
quantities of these. Animal
products are a prime source,
but a mixture of vegetable
sources can also satisfy the
body’s needs. Rich sources of
proteins include meat, fish,
dairy products, pulses, nuts
and cereals.

Vitamins arc essential to
practically all the body’s
chemical processes and for
maintaining the health and
integrity of body tissue. They
are usually required in small
quantities, but must be
consumed regularly because
many are not stored well in
the body. Vitamin A is found
only in animal products,
particularly liver, eggs and
milk, but many fruits and
vegetables such as carrots,
mangoes and papaya contain
carotenes, chemicals that the
body can convert into vitamin
A. Good sources of vitamin C
are fruits and vegetables. The

B complex is found in cereals,
legumes, meat, poultry and
dairy products.

Minerals are essential to
structures such as bones and
teeth (calcium) and processes
such as energy transfer (iron)
and functioning of the body
and brain (iodine). We need
comparatively large amounts
of some minerals, such as
calcium - found in peas and
beans, milk, meat and cheese
- and much smaller amounts
of others, such as iron - found
in meat, fish and shellfish,
dark green leafy vegetables
and nuts.

Because vitamins and
minerals are usually needed in
only small quantities they are
called micronutricnts.

Food provides us with
the energy and
nutrients needed tor a
healthy lile.

Energy expenditure

Energy requirements

Young adults

The pattern of energy expenditure
tends to change with age. Elderly
people tend to use less energy,
primarily as a result of reduced
physical activity.

Vital body processes
Physical activity

Elderly persons

0-23 2-9 10-24 25-60 604 -

months years years years years

Energy requirements
are determined by body
size, activity level and
physiological
conditions such as
illness, infection,
pregnancy and
lactation. As body size
increases, so does the
total energy
requirement; however,
per body unit, the
energy requirement
decreases.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD ANO PEOPLE

Copyrighted Material

FAO projects
to combat
undernourishment
and malnutrition:
training nutrition
agents, Lesotho (top);
children tending their
school vegetable
garden, Ecuador
(bottom).

Estimate of chronically
undernourished in developing regions

1990-92

"Chronically undernourished" is defined
as those whose estimated annual energy
intake falls below that required to maintain
body weight and support light activity.

The data cove» 93 (Weeding cmnf iw. accounting lor
90.5 perçant ot the total peculate* ol the Cevetopng mom

The FAO-WHO Consultative Group on Nutrition has
determined that, on average, a daily diet of around 2 200
calories is sufficient to meet basic nutrition needs. Like
all averages this conceals important differences.

Boundaries o* «wOorw formed anee 1990 <«l former USSR, in termer Yugotiana.

m termor CrechosloMfcia. Entena) are shown in grey.

Undernourishment and malnutrition

O ver 8ÜO million people,
mostly in the developing
world, are chronically
undernourished, eating too
little to meet minimal energy
requirements. Millions more
suffer acute malnutrition
during transitory or seasonal
food insecurity. Over 200
million children suffer from
protein-energy malnutrition
(PEM) and each year nearly
13 million under fives die as a
direct or indirect result of
hunger and malnutrition.

Malnutrition usually results
from diets lacking specific
nutrients hut can also be caused
by so-called “diets of excess”.

PEM is most common
among young children and
pregnant women in the
developing world. It is usually
caused by energy-deficient diets
(that may also lack protein)
coupled with infections that
raise nutrient requirements
while limiting the intake and
utilization of food. It is the
prime cause of low birth
weight and poor growth in the

developing world where
mothers themselves may have a
legacy of low birth weight,
stunted growth and anaemia.

Malnutrition can have
serious effects, right from
conception. Vitamin A
deficiency is associated with
increased child mortality, and
is a prime cause of child
blindness. Iodine deficiency
leads to slow growth and
mental development and to
goitre. Anaemia, largely due to
iron deficiency, is the most
widespread nutritional
problem, affecting
2 000 million worldwide. It
can impede learning and
productivity and is a leading
cause of maternal mortality in
developing countries. Calcium
deficiency is a leading risk
factor for osteoporosis, a
condition where bones become
fragile and brittle. Inadequate
vitamin C can lead to scurvy
and has been linked to poor
absorption of iron and an
increased risk of certain non-
communicable diseases.

Too little

PEM (protein-energy
malnutrition)

Anaemia (Iron

deficiency) [ f í i
Osteoporosis ) j| J C
(calcium deficiency)

Goitre (iodine
deficiency) / J ,
Xeropthalmia / / U
(vitamin A // /

deficiency) // {

Bert- bed / f
(vitamin B Z Ci J
deficiency)

Scurvy (vitamin C
deficiency)

Rickets (vitamin D
deficiency)

Weight and health
Tbe body mass index
(BMI) gives an easy guide to what body
weight is compatible with good health. BMI
is calculated by dividing body mass (weight
in kilograms) by the square of the person's

2 500

iS Millions

■

2000

! 3

« V,

% a

ra “O

jfl

•

■o

— li-
fe

■

1 500

£ l

1 OOO

1 I

500

¿ I

_ 0

Total population
Population chronically
undernourished (figure shows
percentage of total population)

■■ 3 200 and over
EHj 2 900 - 3 199
2 G00 - 2 899
_ 2 300 - 2 599
H 2 000-2 299
■■ Under 2 000
Insufficient data

Average energy supply, 1988-90

Daily calorie intake per caput

FOOD AND PEOPLE DIMENSIONS OF NELD

Copyrighted material

HUMAN NUTRITION

Too much

height In metres. In adults the BMI should
fall between 18.5 and 25. Up to 30 is
considered overweight. Values above 30
indicate obesity.

Diet-related non-communicable diseases

N on-communicablc diseases
such as cardiovascular
ailments, cancer, stroke,
hypertension and diabetes
have become more common
since advances in medicine
have reduced the impact of
infectious diseases and life
expectancy has increased. In
the developing world,
infectious diseases remain the
prime cause of death, but
deaths related to diet, activity
and lifestyle arc on the
increase. In the developed
world, by far the most
common causes of death arc
non-communicable diseases.

Foremost among factors
which contribute to the
greater incidence of these
diseases is the widespread
change towards increasingly
sedentary lifestyles. This,
combined with dietary change
(more fat, less fruit, vegetables
and whole grains), can
contribute to a wide range of
chronic diseases that often
lead to permanent disability
and premature death.

The relationship between
dietary intake, exercise and
heart disease is specially strong.
Studies show a clear connection
between diets extremely high in
fats, especially animal fats, and
low in fruits and vegetables and
an increased risk of obstruction
of blood flow and hardening of
the walls of the arteries. With
the arteries constricted, the
heart must work harder to
pump blood through them.

This extra stress often results in
coronary heart disease.

Studies also indicate a
direct relationship between
diets rich in complex
carbohydrates and fibre and a
reduced risk of cardiovascular
disease and certain cancers,
particularly of the lower bowel.
Hating fibre-rich foods assists
bowel function.

For a healthy lifestyle:
avoid tobacco, do not exceed
a moderate alcohol intake and
take exercise - sufficient to
raise heartbeat - for 20
minutes, three to five times
a week.

More than 800 million
people, over 13 percent
of the world’s
population, do not get
enough to eat

DIMENSION'S OF NEED FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrighted 1 material

People and populations at risk

Poverty and hunger
frequently go together.
This Brazilian family
has only a small tent
to sleep in. All their
other activities,
Including cooking and
eating, are done
outside.

I n the world as a whole, an
average of about 2 700
calories of food is available per
person per day - enough to
meet everyone’s energy
requirements. But food is
neither produced nor
distributed equally. Some
countries produce more
food than others, while
distribution systems and family
incomes determine access to
food. An FAO survey in the
mid-1980s discovered that
average diets in many of the
poorest countries were 2 100
calories a day.

Poor health greatly increases
the risk of malnutrition.
Infection can increase the
body’s requirements for energy
and various nutrients, but limit
the consumption of food and
the absorption of nutrients.

In recent decades, health and
nutritional status have
improved considerably, but are
still far from satisfactory in
many countries.

Rural-urban poverty
indicators

Percentages of rural and
urban populations living
In absolute poverty or
lacking access to
essential services in the
45 least-developed
countries

E33 Rural

Rural and urban poor

Povcrt\ r is a prime cause of
hunger and malnutrition. In
many rural areas, protein-
energy malnutrition and
micronutrient deficiencies are
most common among the
landless poor and such isolated
groups as pastoral nomads and

IZJ Urban

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Saura: UNDP. I4M

GNP per caput. 1993

USS

d 8 626 and over
(high income)
d 2 786-8 625

(upper-middle income)
□ 696-2 785

(lower-middle income)
M Under 6%
flow income)

I 1 Insufficient data

Low per caput GNP identifies countries
where the risk of hunger is greatest.

StowWortJ Bank Anas 1995

small fishing communities.
Inefficient production and lack
of access to credit, seeds,
fertilizers, extension services
and marketing channels can all
limit food production.

The rural poor often go
hungry in the period just lie fore
harvest time when food is
scarce. The urban poor are less
likely to starve, hut inadequate
diets, unhealthy lifestyles and
overcrowded, unsanitary living
conditions make them prone to
infection and all forms of
malnutrition.

Drought and flood-prone
populations

People in drought-prone areas
live under a continuous threat
of hunger and malnutrition.
Droughts in Africa during the

1 980s forced 10 million
farmers to abandon their land;
over 1 million died. The
impact of the drought was
exaggerated in Ethiopia by
government policies which
reduced the reserves of food
grains held on farms. The cost
in lives would have been far
grearer but for the mobilization
of food aid by the international
community.

Worldwide, the population
affected by floods rose from
5.2 million in the 1960s to
15.4 million in the 1970s. The
developing world is
particularly affected; in India
alone deaths from floods were
1 4 times greater in the 1 980s
than the 1 950s and rhe area
affected grew from 25 to 40
million hectares.

16 FOOD AND PEOPLE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

Actual numbers:

Refugees

There are now over 24 million
refugees and displaced persons
globally. They often receive
just enough food to live, and
their diets often lack the
micronutrients needed to
prevent debilitating diseases
such as scurvy and beri-beri.

Women

Many women work longer
hours than men but, because
of their status, receive less
food. Girls may be
underprivileged from birth
and destined for a heavy work
load, poor diet, early marriage
and many closely spaced
pregnancies. Anaemia is
particularly common among
women. Malnourished women
arc likely to have low birth-

weight babies, many of whom
die in infancy.

Children

Poor families' children may be
at risk from a host of
debilitating or fatal diseases
brought on by unsanitary
conditions and inadequate care
and feeding. Infection can push
children from a state of
marginal undernourishment to
one of acute malnutrition. The
children may also have to work
long hours at menial jobs to
supplement the family’s meagre
income, further endangering
their development, education
and health.

The elderly

People who are old and infirm
are increasingly at risk as

populations age in developed
countries and longevity, but not
necessarily health, improves in
the developing world. The
breakdown of the extended
family system and the absence
of social services often leave
them without care or support.

AIDS sufferers

In the developing world,
where AIDS affects men and
women equally, the syndrome
reduces people's capacity to
produce or obtain food and
the ability of parents to care
for their children. Children of
parents with HIV may be
infected in the womb and die
young, while those spared
infection are destined to
join the world’s 30 million or
so orphans.

1 i Africa
(9 854 200)

□ Asia

(5 259 900)

■i Europe
(1 819 200)
m North America
(681 400)

Area of the
former USSR
(647 500)

Latin America
(196 400 )

■I Southwest Pacific
(51 200)

Total number of
concern to UNHCR:

27.5 million; including

18.5 million refugees,

5.5 million internally
displaced persons, and

3.5 million others.

Scurzt UHHCfi

DIMENSIONS OK NEK!) FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrighte^fnaterial

POPULATIONS AT RISK

Africa in context

Drinking water

Population
without access
to safe drinking
water. 1990

(percentages)

70 and over
EO 50*69
CD 25*49
H 0*24

I Insufficient data

Sanitation

POP MM POn

without access

ft 38 'h.'.'.i ai

MfMDM. IHD

(percentages)
i I 70 and over
□ 50-69
H 25-49
■i 0-24

Insufficient data

Sourer WHO, rasu>

Some. WHO 1 992

Five and over
r~~l Four

Droughts

Number of
drought years
experienced by
each country.
1980-91

Boumitry of Eriuea. formed
soce 1991 . ts shown <i Qrey

■■ Three
Two
One

No reported drought years

Source USOTDA. I99t

Africa is more
vulnerable to calamity
than other continents.
Its soils are generally
poor, its climate fickle
and its infrastructure
weak. Despite these
handicaps, Africa tries
to feed a population
that is growing faster
than that of any other
region. Unfortunately,
African fanners are
not keeping up and
food production per
caput continues to
decline.

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 92

Number of persons

chronically

undernourished

Millions

The Oita com 93
tfewtopng countne*
jceounttog tor
98.5 jwrcent of the
total peculado* of thn
demlocwf) *ortd.

1969-71

1979-81

500

EZ I 1990-92
HU 2010

400

300

200

100

North Africa Sub-Saharan East South Latin America

and Near East Africa Asia Asia and Caribbean

The spectre of famine

Between 1980 and
1985, drought affected
around 150 million
people in Africa. This
nomad watts for an
air-drop of food aid in
drought-stricken Chad.

F amines have afflicted
humanity since the dawn
of time: the earliest known
written record dates from
Egypt in 3500 BC. Two
famines swept over India in
1702-04 and 1769-70,
together killing 5 million
people. The worst famine on
record in 1876-79 claimed
between 9 and 13 million
lives in China.

Famines are caused by
human factors such as war,
and ethnic, religious and
tribal conflicts, as well as
by adverse weather and other
natural hazards, including
volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes. Poor people are
generally much more
vulnerable to such disasters
than the rich, and are much
less able to respond to them.

Little progress has been
made in preventing the

causes of famine — the number
of major disasters increased
four-fold between the 1960s
and 1 980s - but the
international donor
community has become better
at preventing them turning
into catastrophes. Between
1980 and 1985, t<>r example,

drought, aggravated by
widespread land degradation,
affected 21 countries and
around 150 million people in
Africa: but a USS I 000
million emergency aid
programme coordinated
by the United Nations and
its agencies saved millions
of lives.

Most developing countries
now have plans to cope with
natural emergencies.
Bangladesh, for instance, has
an elaborate early warning
system for tracking cyclones
arriving in the Bay of Bengal.

It has also set up emergency
cyclone shelters and food
distribution centres.

Some communities are
also taking effective
preventative action. After
a series of devastating
droughts in the 1 980s, the
community of Kibwezi in
Kenya, helped by the African
Medical and Research
Foundation, introduced
drought-resistant crops,
increased the number of
farmed rabbits and domestic
fowl, set up tree nurseries
and developed energy-saving
stoves. Water tanks were
constructed and women’s
groups were helped to initiate
and manage activities to
generate income. Droughts
still threaten the land,
but the people of Kibwezi
are now better able to cope
with them.

FOOD AND PEOPLE PIM1 NMONS OF \WI> a |

Availability of food:
How countries compare

P eople often go hungry even
though food is available
because they are too poor to
buy it. In the 1943 Bengal
famine 2-3 million died,
although there was no overall
food shortage, because an
economic boom raised prices
beyond the reach of the poor.

Most of the worlds poor
and undernourished live in 82
countries that cannot produce
enough food to feed their
populations and lack the
financial resources to make up
the deficit through imports.

FAQ places special emphasis
on improving food production
and availability in these low-
income food-deficit countries.

It is helping farmers in high-
potential areas to increase food
supplies through sustainable
but intensive agriculture. At
the same time, subsistence
cultivators in areas with poor
soil or unreliable rainfall are
being encouraged to diversify
so as to increase self-reliance
and protect the environment.

Twenty-five years ago,

4 1 percent of the people of Hast

Asia were hungry; by 1992 this
proportion had fallen to
16 percent, despite an increase
in population of over 500
million. Over the same period
the proportion malnourished
in Latin America dropped from
18 percent to 14 percent, and
in the Near Hast from
25 percent to 10 percent. Food
availability in Africa has
improved recently, but the
average intake o! little more
than 2 000 calories a day
indicates that many people
still receive less than that.

Over the past 25
years, the proportion
of chronically
undernourished
people has declined.

f 1 Latin America

mû Near East

Far East

and Caribbean

Afghanistan

Jordan

Syrian Arab Republic

Bangladesh

Maldives

Bolivia

Egypt

Sudan

Yemen

Bhutan

Mongolia

Dominican Republic

Cambodia

Nepal

Ecuador

China

Pakistan

Guatemala

r*F~l Africa

India

Philippines

Haiti

Angola

Ethiopia

Niger

Indonesia

Sri Lanka

Honduras

Benin

Gambia

Nigeria

Laos

Nicaragua

Burkina Faso

Ghana

Rwanda

Burundi

Guinea

Sao Tome and Principe

Cameroon

Guinea-Bissau

Senegal

L3 Europe and area of

Cape Verde

Kenya

Sierra Leone

the former USSR

■1 Southwest

Central African Rep.

Lesotho

Somalia

Albania

Turkmenistan

Pacific

Chad

Liberia

Swaziland

Armenia

Uzbekistan

Kiribati

Comoros

Madagascar

Tanzania, United Rep.

Azerbai|an

Papua New Guinea

Congo

Malawi

Togo

Georgia

Samoa

Côte d'Ivoire

Mali

Zaire

Kyrgyzstan

Solomon tslands

Djibouti

Mauritania

Zambia

Macedonia. Former

Tuvalu

Equatorial Guinea

Morocco

Zimbabwe

Yugoslav Republic of

Vanuatu

Eritrea

Mozambique

Tajikistan

DIMENSIONS Ol NEED FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrighted material

Foodcrops and shortages

KIRIBATI! 50c

HONDURAS At*' LI 05

The world is faced
with starvation in
the midst of plenty.

The majority of the
world's poor and
undernourished people
live in 82 low-income
food-deficit countries
(LlFDCs). Both Kiribati
and Honduras fall into
this category and are
dependent on food aid.
Their stamps shown
above commemorate
the International
Conference on
Nutrition in 1992.

Summary forecasts (July/August 1994)

Summary forecasts (September/October 1994)

The Foodcrops and Shortages Special
Reports - issued by FAO's Global
Information and Early Warning System
on Food and Agriculture (GJEWS) -
provide up-to-date accounts, country
by country, of crop conditions,
production prospects and the national
food supply situation in both
developing and developed countries.
Reports specify those countries with
severe food shortages and identify
those where current crop conditions
give cause for concern.

requiring exceptional
assistance

I J

Unfavourable

prospects for

crops

Food supply
shortfall in
marketing year
requiring exceptional
assistance

FOOOCROPS AND SHORTAGES

FOOD AND PEOPLE DIM! NSIONS OF MEED

oí me principal 10

cultivated plants

i 1 Areas of genetic ♦

diversity of
cultivated plants

Selected food crops:

1 . Chinese- Japanese region
bamboo, millet, mustard,
orange, peach, rice,
soybean, tea

2. Indochinese-lndonesian
region

bamboo, banana, coconut,
grapefruit, mango, rice,
sugar cane, yam

3. Australian region

macadamia nut

4. Hindustani region

banana, bean, chick-pea,
citrus, cucumber, eggplant,
mango, mustard, rice,
sugar cane

5. Central Asian region

apple, apricot, bean, carrot,
grape, melon, onion, pea,
pear, plum, rye. spinach,
walnut wheat

6. Near Eastern region
almond, barley, hg, grape,
lentil, melon, pea, pistachio,

rye, wheat

7. Mediterranean region

beetroot, cabbage, celery,
fava bean, grape, lettuce,
oats, olive, radish, wheat

B. African region
coffee, millet, oil palm, okra.

sorghum, teff, wheat, yam

9. European-Siberian
region

apple, cherry, chicory, hops,
lettuce, pear

10. South American region
cacao, cassava, groundnut,
lima bean, papaya, pineapple,
potato, squash, sweet potato
tomato

11. Central American and
Mexican region

french bean, maize,
pepper/chilli, potato, squash

12. North American region
blueberry, sunflower

Staple crops are shown in bold type

The world has over
50 000 edible plants.
Just three of them,
rice, maize and wheat,
provide 60 percent of
the world's food
energy intake.

A staple food is one that
is eaten regularly and
in such quantities as to
constitute the dominant part
of the diet and supply a major
proportion of energy and
nutrient needs.

A staple food does not meet
a population’s total nutritional
needs: a variety of foods is
required. This is particularly
the case for children and other
nutritionally vulnerable
groups.

Typically, staple foods are
well adapted to the growth
conditions in their source
areas. For example, they
may lx* tolerant of drought,

pests or soils low in nutrients.
Farmers often rely on staple
crops to reduce risk and
increase the resilience of their
agricultural systems.

Most people live on a diet
based on one or more of the
following staples: rice, wheat,
maize (corn), millet, sorghum,
roots and tubers (potatoes,
cassava, yams and taro), and
animal products such as meat,
milk, eggs, cheese and fish.

Of more than 50 000 edible
plant species in the world, only
a few Hundred contribute
significantly to food supplies.
Just 15 crop plants provide
90 percent of the world’s food

energy intake, with three -
rice, maize and wheat -
making up two-thirds of this.
These three arc the staples of
over 4 000 million people.

Although there are over
10 000 species in the
Gramineae (cereal) family,
few have been widely
introduced into cultivation
over the past 2 000 years.
Rice feeds almosr half of
humanity. Per caput rice
consumption has generally
remained stable, or risen
slightly since the 1960s. It
has declined in recent years
in many of the wealthier
rice-consuming countries.

DIMENSION'S OF Nl l l) FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copy righte^ m aterial

FOODS

SIERRA LEONE

The main staple foods
In the average African
diet are (in terms of
energy) cereals
(46 percent), roots and
tubers (20 percent)
and animal products
(7 percent).

In Western Europe the
main staple foods in
the average diet are
(in terms of energy)
animal products
(33 percent), cereals
(26 percent) and roots
and tubers (4 percent).

such as Japan, the Republic
of Korea and Thailand,
because rising incomes have
enabled people to eat a more
varied diet.

Roots and tubers are
important staples tor over
I 000 million people in the
developing world. They
account for roughly
40 percent of the food eaten
by half the population of
sub-Saharan Africa. They
are high in carbohydrates,
calcium and vitamin C, bur
low in protein.

Per caput consumption of
roots and tubers has been
falling in many countries since
the beginning of the 1970s,
mainly because urban
populations have found it
cheaper and easier to buy
imported cereals. Since 1970,
consumption of roots and
tubers in the Pacific Islands
has fallen by 8 percent, while
cereal consumption jumped by
40 percent, from 6 1 to 85
kilograms per person.

Many countries are
experiencing a similar shift
away from traditional foods,
but there is growing
recognition of the importance
of traditional food crops in
nutrition. After years of being
considered “poor people’s
foods” some of these crops are
now enjoying a comeback.
Cassava, considered a minor
crop at the turn of the century,
has now become one of the
developing world's most
important staples providing a
basic diet for around
500 million people. Plantings
arc increasing faster than for
any other crop. Quinoa, a
grain grown in the high Andes,
is also gaining wider
acceptance even outside of
Latin America w-ith the
introduction of new varieties
and improved processing.

Proportions of food in average diets

North America, Central America and Caribbean

South America

World diets

Average daily caloñe intake ot
the following food groups as a
percentage of total:

Roots and tubers
■■ Meat, fish, milk, eggs
l~ I Fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts
■■ Oils. tats, sugars
I I Other foods and food groups
contnbuting less than to percent
to the DES (see below)

Each coloured segment indicates a
contribution ol 10 percent or more to the
average dietary energy supply (DES). Other
foods and any food group providing less than
10 percent to the DES is coloured grey.

Because the hgms are shorn as ranges and not precise
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appear same sire

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former rpgottana. in t cerner OJCfotJoiaLa, Ernie*) are
3*o«n in grirj OaU tar that countries nut sralaWe

FOOD AND PEOPLE

STAPLE FOODS

Europe and area of the former USSR Asia

IT4 *** ¿ÜVIKMMI
lt'i'#ltVlt% « «. t : ■<*= % -1* v .It

DIMENSIONS «f NUI) FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrighted liiaterial

STAPLE FOODS

THE WORLD'S
FORGOTTEN FOODS

Some traditional food
plants could become
foods of the future - a
convenient source of
income, improved
nutrition and
increased food supply.

Amaranth and
quinoa - grains that
originally came from
the Andes and were
holy to the Incas of
Peru and the Aztecs of
Mexico - are being re-
evaluated. Both are
versatile and
nutritious. They are
also hardy: amaranth
thrives in hot
climates; quinoa is
frost resistant and can
be grown as high as
4 000 metres.

Many more

traditional foods await
development and
wider use.

Other important nutritional sources - complementary foods

T hroughout the world,
complementary foods play
an essential role in meeting
nutrient requirements. They
include protein sources -
meat, poultry, fish, legumes
and milk products; energy
sources - fats, oils and sugars;
and vitamin and mineral
sources - fruits, vegetables
and animal products.

In addition to conventional
crops and agricultural
products, the following are
valuable sources of nutrition.
Their importance is particularly
obvious during seasonal and
emergency shortages.

Wild plants are essential for
many rural subsistence
households; at least l 000
million people are thought to
use them. In Ghana, for
instance, the leaves of over
100 species of wild plants -
and the fruits of another 200
- are consumed. In rural
Swaziland, more than 220
species of wild plants provide
a greater share of the diet
than domesticated cultivars.
In India, Malaysia and
Thailand, about 150 wild
plant species have been
identified as sources of
emergency food.

Wild animals including insects,
birds, fish, rodents and larger
mammals are often the only
source of animal protein for
rural people. In parts of the
Peruvian Amazon, for example,
over 85 percent of dietary-
animal protein is from the wild.
Some 62 developing countries
rely on wildlife for at least one-
fifth of their animal protein.

Fish supplements the rice diet
of many north-eastern Thai
and Lao farming families.

Both fish and frogs are caught
in streams, irrigation canals,
ditches, water reservoirs and
flooded paddy fields.

Tree foods and home gardens

contribute significantly to rural
diets. In West Java, Indonesia,
coconut trees and home
gardens produce 32 percent
of total dietary protein and
44 percent of total calorie
needs. In Puerto Rico, the
produce from home gardens
has increased vitamin A and C
intake, especially in children.

Forest foods can provide varied
food year round, supplying
essential minerals and
vitamins. They include: wild
leaves, seeds and nuts, fruits,
roots and tubers, mushrooms,
honey and animal products.

FOOD AND PEOPLE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

uopyrigntea material

Who are the food producers?

Fruit and vegetable market, Guinea.

O ver 1 000 million farmers
work the land: men and
women, young and old.

Nearly all of them live in the
developing world. Only a
relatively small number,
around 50 million, live in the
developed countries where
agriculture is typically highly
mechanized.

Farms have been getting
bigger and bigger in the
developed countries as tens of
thousands of small farmers,
unable to make a living, have
left the land. Most of North
America's food is now
produced by large-scale,
commercial operations. Often
they integrate production with
food processing, marketing
and distribution in a complete
agribusiness system.

By contrast, farms in most of
the developing world consist of
small, family-owned plots,
many of which have been

cultivated for generations. Small
farmers constitute over half the
world’s rural poor, but they
produce about four-fifths of
food supplies in developing
countries.

Division of labour

The roles of men and women
in food production, processing
and marketing vary, but
women usually play a pivotal
role. In sub-Saharan Africa,
they produce and market up to
90 percent of all food grown
locally.

Lack of employment
opportunities in rural areas
gives rise to seasonal or
permanent emigration, usually
of men. In some parts of Africa
for example, 60 percent of
households are now headed by
women. On average women
work longer hours than men,
but very few of them have title
to the land they work.

Population economically active in
agriculture

900

S U W ñ

m E E d.

< « *

ts> £

Children become farm
labourers at an early age,
working as many as 45 hours
a week in the harvest season.

Women in the developing
world are almost entirely
responsible for growing food
for the household. And in
many countries, they arc also
responsible for taking care of
larger livestock even though
the owners are usually men. In
Nepal, for example, where
grazing land is scarce, women
are responsible for collecting
fodder for the buffaloes - and
a single animal can consume
up to 40 tonnes of grass and
leaves a year.

For every one fanner In
the developed world
there are 19 in the
developing world.
Where there Is
mechanization, fewer
workers can produce
more food.

Division of labour
by gender in Africa

(percentages)

0 20 40 GO 80 100

Domestic work

Processing & storing crops

Weeding

Harvesting

Caring for livestock

Planting

Ploughing

1 I Women's work

i I Men's work

DIMENSIONS or Nin> FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copy righieáViate rial

ARE THE FOOD PRODUCERS?

FARMING SYSTEMS
IN THE DEVELOPING
WORLD

Four broad agro-
ecological zones account
for 90 percent of
agricultural production Hi
developing countries.
Each has a range of
farming systems and a
mixture of traditional
and modem production
systems.

Humid and per-humid
lowlands
Population: 1 OOO

million 4

Area: 3 100 million ha
Features: mostly
forested areas;
environmental
deterioration, mainly due
to loss of tree cover,
reasonable food security
(80 percent of root and
tuber production in
developing world)

Major systems:
sfiifting cultivation;
plantations (e.g. rubber);
horticulture (widespread);
extensive grazing (mainly
In Latin America)

Hill and mountain

Cultivators

Small-scale farmer. Peru.

An enormous range of
people, from the “grain
barons" of the United
Kingdom’s East Anglia and the
United States' Midwest to the
small-scale farmers of Sichuan,
China, from African mothers
to Indian landless labourers,
till the soil for a living.

Large-scale farmers tend
to specialize in one or two
crops and nearly all of their
produce is sold. They
depend on external, often
costly, inputs such as chemical
fertilizer, high-yielding seeds
and mechanization. The
subsistence farmer, by
contrast, produces as much
of his family's food needs
as possible and cannot usually
afford expensive inputs.

Selling produce is a
secondary consideration but
a hoped-for bonus to make
cash purchases of household
essentials. Some small-scale
farmers have, however, turned
to producing single cash
crops for income.

The merits of high input,
single enterprise farming are
increasingly being questioned.
The need is to use inputs

efficiently to keep the costs
of production low while
avoiding pollution and land
degradation. In some
instances, for example where
the productive potential of
the land is low or the risk of
crop failure high, low input
mixed farming is being
encouraged. TTiis type of
farming cannot, however,
produce all the tonnages
needed to feed cither present
or future generations.
Intensified mixed farming is
also required.

Farming requires an array
of skills: farmers must

understand soil types and
their limitations, know when
to plant and harvest and what
types of crops to rotate, when
to apply organic or man-made
fertilizers and pesticides, and
be able to harvest and market
their produce.

Poorer countries in the
developing regions often lack
the resources to provide
much help. Where resources
arc available, farmers still
may not receive the support
that matches their needs
and capabilities.

Small farmers in the
developing world usually have

Population: 500 million*
Area: 1 000 million ha
Features: many areas
with slopes of more than
30 percent gradient;
most forms of
environmental
deterioration evident,
particularly soil erosion;
food insecurity
increasing
Major systems:
hillfarming (e.g. in
Himalayas. Andes);
dairy and grazing (eg.
Latin America)

Nearly 500 million people live
in or close to forests. Most
forest peoples grow some
crops but they still rely on the
natural productivity of the
forests.

They use many forest
products: plant stems, tubers
and fruits provide additional
food during hungry seasons or
when crops fail; wild animals
arc hunted for their meat and
hides; and the forests provide
fodder for livestock, fuclwood

Forest people

and medicines. Coastal
mangrove forests nurture fish
and crustaceans (shrimp and
crabs), and provide wood for
building and leaves for fodder.

Tribal people such as the
Bhil, Mina and Sehariya in
India depend on hill forests for
wood and food, while the
Maku of Colombia and Brazil,
hunter-gatherers living in the
upper reaches of the Amazon
Basin, collect everything they
need from the forest.

Using forest products.

FOOD AND PEOPLE W M. N*»»Ot, W| , ¡g.

WHO ARE THE FOOD PRODUCERS?

Pastoral ists

only enough land to meet
the needs of their families, or
immediate community. Those
able to produce surpluses
for sale are at a disadvantage
compared with large-scale
farmers. Few small farmers
have any control over the
marketing and distribution of
their produce, or even its
price at the “farm gate".

They also tend to be left out
of mainstream development.

Large-scale farmers arc
usually able to take
advantage of new harvesting
techniques and other
innovations. Successful
farmers may buy out
smallholders, who are then
forced into the ranks of
the landless. By 1994, there
were some 500 million
landless people in rural areas
of developing countries -
over 900 million if farmers
with very little land arc
added in.

In order to increase food
production there is a need to
ensure adequate food supplies
and incomes for all and to
draw farmers beyond
subsistence level agriculture.

Meo people, Thailand.

Cattle herding, Niger.

Pastoralists live and work in
the world’s drylands -
ranging from the Texas
rancher w ho runs cattle on
2 000 square kilometres of
pasture to the nomadic
Masai of Kenya and
Tanzania who herd their
cattle over their traditional
rangelands. They raise
livestock for their own
consumption, or for sale to
consumers in cities and
towns, and as a source of
savings. The largest meat
producers, mainly in North
and South America and
Australia, cater for the
international market,
supplying North America
and Asia.

Pastoralists are often
better off than settled
farmers during normal
times. They can move their
animals to follow- the rains
or take them to established
seasonal grazing areas. They
are often the first victims,
however, of prolonged
environmental stress - such
as extended drought.
Domestic animals arc less
able to survive until the
rains return w hereas crops
can be stored and some.

especially new varieties, are
heat tolerant and drought
resistant.

Developing world
pastoralists have evolved
ways of making productive
use of some of the world’s
most inhospitable areas,
often moving as nomads
from place to place to
minimize pressure on the
land.

Disaster can follow when
their traditional ways arc
disrupted. When, for
example, one African
government decided to settle
a nomadic population
around some 200 permanent
water holes, they had soon
chopped down every tree in
the area for use as fuelwood
and building material. Their
animals ate every blade of
grass and every shrub,
leaving a ring of desolation
for kilometres around the
water holes. Stripped of
vegetation, the soil was soon
blown away by the wind. It
was found that if the
nomads were allowed to
return to their traditional
life, the land w-ould support
twice as many people and
their animals.

FARMING SYSTEMS
IN THE DEVELOPING
WORLD

Irrigated and naturally
flooded areas

Population: 1 000

million +

Area: 215 million ha
Features: limitations
include high costs,
waterlogging,
salinization and pollution
of groundwater:
crucial to food socurity
(60 percent of grain
production in developing
world)

Major systems:

lowland rice-based;
irrigated farming (many
crops);

aquaculture (minor);
intensive animal
production;
horticulture

Drylands and areas of
uncertain rainfall

Population: 500 million*
Area: 3 400 million ha
Features: less than
500mm rainfall In
drylands or semi-humid
with light erratic rainfall;
some 6 million ha lost
annually through
desertification;
food insecurity common
Major systems:
pastoral;

upland cereal-based;
some plantations
(e.g. sisal);
horticulture (on small
Irrigated areas)

DIMENSIONS Of NEED FOOD ANO PEOPLE

Copy rightecPFn aterial

ARE THE FOOD PRODUCERS?

Fishing fteet. Scotland. Fishermen. Bangladesh.

Fisherfolk

Fish farm, China.

Artisanal fishing. Malawi.

Some 20 million fishermen
ply the world's seas and
inland waters or farm fish.
They harvest about
100 million tonnes of fish,
shellfish, invertebrates and
aquatic plants every year:
around 80 percent of the
catch is landed by
commercial operators and
roughly 20 percent, largely in
the developing world, by the
worlds 12-15 million small-
scale artisanal fishermen. A
further 16 million tonnes are
produced by fish farmers.
Over half the world’s fish
catch is taken by developing
countries.

Fish is the world’s largest
wild food harvest, and
provides the major source of
animal protein for over
1 000 million people, most
of them in Asia. It is also
particularly important in the
diet of such developed
countries as Japan, Spain
and Iceland.

In recent years, fish
stocks have been seriously
depicted by large-scale
commercial operations on
the high seas and small and
medium-scale ones in waters
falling under national
jurisdiction. All 17 of the
world’s major fishing areas
have either reached or
exceeded their natural limits
and 9 arc in serious decline.

Small-scale artisanal
fishermen in the tropics, who
operate from canoes and
small boats, are less likely to
over-fish, but all too often
the sheer pressure of
numbers overwhelms the
age-old systems for
managing stocks. These
traditional fishing
communities arc among the
poorest and most neglected
in the world. They often
lack clean drinking water,
sanitation, housing, medical
care, transport and
communications as well as

safe and equipped harbours
and connections to markets.
Outside the mainstream
of economic and political
life, they frequently suffer
as a result of a lack of
recognized rights to
resources and competition
from medium-scale
commercial operators with
better access to capital,
subsidies and administrations.

The plight of these fishing
communities has been
increasingly recognized. For
example, FAO’s Bay of
Bengal Programme, which
was started in 1979, focuses
on promoting development
in small-scale fishing
communities in the Bay’s
seven bordering countries.
This, and other development
programmes, operate
under the assumption that if
local communities receive
rights and responsibilities
over resources they will be
better managed.

FOOD AND PEOPLE IMMLNSlUNS Ul N£Uf Q |

Impact of poverty on life

T he poor usually live in
the most undesirable
areas - in deserts, in swamps,
along storm-ridden coasts,
on hillsides prone to
landslides and avalanches,
near garbage dumps or in
industrial zones.

Some live on city streets
in makeshift houses of
cardboard or discarded
wood. For much of the year
they may be underemployed
or completely unemployed.
When they can find work it
is low' paid. Many survive
on a diet that is inadequate
for at least parr of the year.
They have very little money
for other necessities such
as education, family
planning, medical care and
transport.

The following profiles from
different parts of the world
arc typical of the daily lives of
poor families.

GNP per caput, 1993 USS

Uruguay

Colombia
Philippines
Central African Rep.

Mali 3i

Bangladesh 220

Uganda 190

Viet Nam 170.

Nepal in

United Rep. Tanzania 100

Country featured
in this chapter

Source Wortfl Bank Alls. (MS

Poor people need to
be resourceful
because they often
live in hostile physical
environments
completely lacking
amenities.

Rural family: Bangladesh

A typical poor farm family
in Bangladesh has six
members and lives in a
dilapidated thatched house
with earth floors. Their
water comes from a well
shared with about 150
other people. There is no
sewage disposal; families
share pit latrines, or use
the waterways.

The family grows two
rice crops a year on a tiny
0.1 hectare plot, but the
meagre harvest meets only
about one-fifth of the
family's food needs.
Members of the family
must work on neighbouring
farms to earn money to buy
the rest. Nearly 90 percent
of the family's spending is
on food; what little remains
is used for clothing,

medicines and schooling.
With the passage of time
their wages have bought less
and less rice.

On average, the family
members cat approximately
1 700 calories each
per day. As a result they
are well below normal
weight and height. Two
children had died before
reaching their second
birthdays.

In times of crisis such
as famine or flood, the
family would first sell
household possessions, then
tools and finally their land.
It would then join the
growing number of the
landless.

Those families who can
hold on to their land do not
necessarily fare better; they
often fall deep in debt to
money lenders - a treadmill
from which it is very hard
to escape.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copy righ 29 material

OF POVERTY ON LIFE

Industrial labourer’s family: Colombia

This urban family of six
lives in a shared, rented
house in a shanty town on
the edge of Bogota. The
house has electricity and
running water, but no
sanitation.

The father’s work, manual
labour on construction sites,
is heavy. The mother takes
care of three school-age
children and a baby, as well
as doing domestic work.
Their total income rarely
exceeds the minimum wage:
20 percent of it is spent on
rent, 70 percent on food,
and the rest on transport,
education, health services
and recreation.

The family gets 29 percent
of its dietary energy from
cereals (rice, wheat and
maize), 18 percent from
sugar and 10 percent from
potatoes and cassava. The
family eats 8 400 calories of
food a day, unequally
shared, with the father
eating most because of his
heavy work.

The children are all short
for their age and under-
weight because they do not
cat enough food. And they
suffer from diarrhoea,
respiratory infections and
parasites.

The minimum wage has
kept only slightly ahead of
the cost of living, but food
prices have risen faster than
inflation as a whole.

The father is frequently
unemployed because work
in the building industry is
irregular. When the father is
out of work the rent still
has to be paid and the
family has to buy food on
credit at a high-priced local
store.

Small-scale fishing family: Tanzania

The fisherman s family lives
on Kerebc Island, on Lake
Victoria. There are six
children. Small-scale farmers
and landless farm labourers
and their families migrate to
the island in the fishing
season, which lasts from May
until the rains come in
September. The men fish,
while the women earn money
by processing the catch.

The family lives in a flimsy
grass house and shares a pit
latrine. There is no electricity'
or running water.

Bananas are the major food
grown on the island and
families often raise goats and
poultry. Most of the island s
staple foods - maize, cassava
flour, rice and beans - must
be brought in from the
mainland. The fisherman eats

two meals a day of a simple
bean and banana porridge
flavoured with fish sauce
made from a small sardine
called dagaa from the lake.
Dagaa is considered a “poor
mans food” but is highly
nutritious because it is eaten

whole and so supplies calcium
and iron as well as other
essential micronutrients.

The family’s nutrition
ranges from adequate to
marginal, depending on
income from fishing: when
there is no money, they can
buy no other food. Money
can be borrowed and later
repaid with cash or fish, but
this often gets fishing families
deep into debt. In normal
circumstances the income is
enough to buy food and
some goods and to save to
buy inputs for farming during
the rest of the year. But
frequent fishing accidents
and AIDS have killed or
weakened some of the most
productive in the community
and cut many families’
incomes.

FOOD AND PEOPLE DIMENSIONS k*k' NEED ¡al

IMPACT OF POVERTY ON LIFE

Landless family: the Philippines

This landless family of six
lives in a small bamboo and
palm thatch house. They have
no electricity or running water
and few possessions other
than clothes, cooking utensils
and a radio. They use
kerosene for lighting and

pay a monthly fee to get
drinking water from a shared
tap. Their farm equipment
is a sickle and a mat for
drying jute.

They grow vegetables and
keep a pig and a few ducks
on their rented home plot.
Weeding a landowners plot
gives them the right to a
share of its harvest (usually
one-eighth to one-sixth of
the crop). This increases
their security, but means that
they have no income for two
or three months before the
harvest as there is no
agricultural work at the time.

Farm work is their sole
source of cash income. The
entire family works at
harvesting, threshing and
winnowing during the two
main rice harvests. In a

typical year, 65 percent of
income comes from crop-
share payments, 1 5 percent
from cash wages and
20 percent from the sale of a
fattened pig.

Two-thirds of the family’s
total spending is on food.
Nearly half of their food is
rice, mainly from crop-share
payments, but they also eat
vegetables, salt, milk, fish and,
rarely, meat. The family’s
average dietary energy intake
is 10 200 calories per day.

Their low, irregular income
frequently forces them into
debt: where possible they
borrow from friends and
neighbours to avoid the 19-
25 percent monthly interest
charged by money lenders. A
serious illness could easily
bankrupt them.

A pastoral family of six lives
on the parched plains of
Mali in round huts built of
dried stalks, which are water-
resistant w hen new and can
be erected easily. This Fulani
family has a herd of 24 cattle
and 10 goats and grows a
crop of millet during the
rainy season.

In the wet season they
camp around rain ponds,
which dry out by November.
During the cold, dry season
(November-February). the
young men take most of the
cattle in search of grazing.

The rest of the household,
with their goats, weaker
animals and a few milk cow s,
camp on the edge of a village,
and buy or barter for water.

During the hot. dry
season, they move camp to a

Pastoral family: Mali

permanent water hole.

Among the Fulani, adult
men are responsible for the
main herd and for most of
the millet cultivation. Boys
tend goats and calves. The
women and girls collect fuel
wood and water for domestic
use, help with the harvest,
pound millet and prepare
meals.

The household’s maximum
dietary energy intake, which is
in October after the harvest, is
14 700 calories per day,
enough to meet their dictan
needs. It is at its lowest,
between 7 840 and 8 820
calorics per day, from
December to June. The weight
of both adults and children
varies with the seasons.

Selling livestock accounts
for over 90 percent of the

family’s cash income, while
half of their spending is on
cereals. Prolonged drought
spells disaster. In 1973, after
five years of drought, 100 000
Malians perished, along with
about half of their animals.

DIMENSIONS OK NF.F.D FOOD ANO PEOPLE

Copyrighted 'material

OF POVERTY ON LIFE

Farm family: Central African Republic

Living in a humid, subtropical
climate, this family of six
survives on the shifting
cultivation of cassava. They
live in a rudimentary hut,
fashioned from mud and
thatch, with no running water,
electricity or sanitation. The
family has no access to social
services. Among such people
infant mortality rates are as
high .is 160 per I 000 live-
births and life expectancy is no
more than 40 years.

Once the soil becomes
unproductive after a few years
of cultivation, the family
moves on to clear another part
of the forest. Sometimes,
larger, community-level moves
are organized by the village
elders. The family shares the
workload; it cannot count on
any external help.

The family grows bananas,
yams and some vegetables,
w hich partly cover their
vitamin needs. It owns no
livestock other than a few
chickens and perhaps a goat
or two. Most of its meat
comes from hunting and
fishing. The average food
consumption is around 2 000

calories per person per day.

Overall, the total availability'
of calories is adequate, but
the family is continuously at
risk of severe malnutrition
because it depends heavily on
cassava, lacks animal protein
and its members suffer
frequent attacks of debilitating
diseases.

A typical hill farmer in Nepal
has a family of six and lives
in a small hamlet of about
30 households on terraced
slopes in the lower hills of
the Himalayas. The family
home is made from mud,
bricks and straw, and has dirt
floors. There is no running

Farm family: Nepal

water or sanitation. The
farmer owns his land - about
half a hectare fragmented
into seven or eight plots at
different elevations. He owns
some simple farm tools, some
livestock and one draught
bullock.

Most family members share
the heavy workload, but the
women in the community
tend to work longer than the
men - 1 1 hours as compared
to 8 hours per day. Even
children aged 10-14 work
between 4 and 7 hours doing
household chores and weeding.

The family grows mai/c
and millet on rain-fed
uplands and rice and wheat
on low-lying, irrigable land.
How much low-lying land a
family has depends on its
wealth. Crops are grown

intensively, using much
labour and organic manures.

The farmer produces
almost 60 percent of his
family's food. He earns
money to buy the rest by
selling his labour, either
within his village or far away
in Katmandu, or even India.
The family’s daily food
consumption amounts to
around 2 100 calories per
person.

Food production in Nepal's
uplands has declined
significantly over the past
two decades. Since sons
inherit equal shares of land,
per caput farmland has
declined; many remaining
farmsteads are too small to
support families of six or
more individuals. Their
future is bleak.

FOOD AND PEOPLE OJM1 NMONS Ol Nfc£|) |

IMPACT OP POVERTY ON UPE

A typical family living in the
Yen Lap cooperative in the
remote area of Yen Houng
Province, northern Viet Nam,
has six members, three of
whom work as labourers.

Both men and women work
in the rice paddies. The family
also keeps pigs and buffaloes,
fed and cared for by the
women of the household. Its
main foods are rice, cassava,
cabbage and pig fat.

The production system is
based on shifting cultivation,
and rice productivity' is low.
The average yield of hill rice
at only around 650 kilograms
per hectare per year, is less
than half that of low land
rice. Typically, the family
earns only 35 percent of its
household cash income from
the sale of agricultural crops.

Forest family: Viet Nam

The family’s food
production meets just over
half of their nutritional needs
(58 percent). It depends on
the nearby forest to provide it
with the remainder. A wide
selection of forest products is
used, including 60 species of
plants, fruits and wild

animals. Five wild plant
species substitute directly for
rice, particularly during the
three to four month
“hungry” season prior to the
harvest each year. Forest
foods make the difference
between getting by and
starving.

Family suffering from AIDS: Uganda

In Uganda, where 3 million
people arc expected to die
from HIV/ AIDS between
1991 and 2010, the disease
has an impact upon both
infected adults and those
who depend on them.

Esther, 35 years old and
widowed, is the head of a
household consisting of ten
women and girls. She looks
after her own three children
and her brother’s three
orphaned girls, her late
husband’s 17-year-old
daughter by another wife
and her young child, and her
sick stepmother.

When her brother died,
Esther inherited a hectare
of land on which she
grows maize, groundnuts,
cassava and sweet potatoes
for family consumption.

She does most of the
work herself as the children
only work on the farm on
Saturdays. Sometimes she
hires casual labourers to
help her, and pays them
in kind.

Esther also brews beer.
This is very labour intensive
and provides only a small
profit, but she has no other
way of generating the cash
she needs to buy necessities
such as soap, salt and fish
or meat.

The family eats leftovers
for breakfast and sorghum,
sometimes with potatoes and
greens, for dinner. During
the “hungry season” in
March and April. Esther
works as a casual labourer
for USS 0.45 a day, enough
income to provide one daily
meal for her family.

Esther’s own three girls are
at school, but she cannot
afford to continue paying the
fees for the orphans, and is
pessimistic about their
future.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrighted 3 :: aterial

Feeding the world:

The search for food security

Urban and rural
population projections
In developing
countries

Millions (and
percentage of
population)

Growth rates,
1985-2010 (percent)

Rural: 0.8
Urban: 3.4
Total: 1.8

T he population of most
developing countries is still
growing rapidly, even though
the rate of growth has slowed
down. Every year the global
population increases by
90 million. Most of the
increase, around 95 percent,
takes place in the developing
world. Populations in most
developed countries are
increasing only slightly, if at
all; in some of them, such as
Germany and Hungary, they
are even falling.

Taking the most
conservative projections for
world population growth over
the next 30 years, food
production will need to double
in order to meet minimum
requirements. Yet the land
available to produce this
additional food is being
degraded, largely as a result of
deforestation, overgrazing
and poor farming practices.
FAO estimates that some
l 200 million hectares of
land arc affected by soil
degradation. Erosion by wind
and water accounts for just
over 1 000 million hectares of
this, with the balance
caused by chemical and
physical degradation.

At the same time, the
availability of productive
agricultural land per
caput is declining in many
countries because of
population growth and the
lack of reserves that could be
brought into production.

Data from 57
developing countries
™ show that nearly

50 percent of all farms are
smaller than 1 hectare in size.
Many poor farmers find that,
as a result, they can no longer
make a living from their land.

In the developing countries
people are migrating in large
numbers to towns and cities

in search of paid employment
and better opportunities.
Nearly 70 percent of all Latin
Americans now live in urban
areas compared to just
30 percent or so 30 years ago.
Urban areas are growing by
6-8 percent a year in sub-
Saharan Africa. Soon, more
people will live in towns and
cities than in the countryside
in developing countries as a
whole. The young and more
vigorous people rend to
migrate, leaving women,
children and the old to carry
the burden of work.

Food services have grown up
to provide for city workers and
others who spend most of the
day far from home. Street
vendors, restaurants, fast food
chains and caterers are
important in almost every
country. In Malaysia, for
example, street food sales from
the 100 000 or more vendors
are estimated to have an
annual value of more than
US$ 2 000 million.

In the developing world,
street vendors usually sell
traditional dishes that are
produced locally. They provide

î 4

FOOD AND PEOPLE IMMF \MONS OF SfchD

Poverty is the root cause of food
insecurity. A food secure country
can produce, store or import the
food It needs and distribute It
equitably. Food insecure countries
typically have either large numbers
of very poor people, or very low
average food consumption levels,
or large fluctuations In food
supplies coupled with low
consumption levels.

No single recipe will ensue
food security for all Individuáis,
households or nations. The basic

Agriculture and population

To feed the world
population in the year
2025, predicted to
be 8 500 million,
current world food
production will have
to more than double.

Ingredients, Illustrated here, are
well-known, although their quality
and availability vary greatly from
region to region.

Making people's nutritional well-
being the focus of national and
International development pódeles
- and using It as a measure of
their su cc es s - would be a major
step In creating a well-fed world.

a ready market ior farmers
and home gardeners. Many
poor families also depend on
them. For those living in
shanty towns, they may be the
only source of cooked food.

Many street vendors offer
good nutritious food, but
some sell products of
questionable hygiene and
safety. As a result, where
street foods are widespread
vendors need to be trained
and standards introduced to
ensure good hygiene and
provide food free from
harmful contamination.

The world's ten largest urban agglomerations by the year 2000 Millions

Tokyo
Bombay
Sao Paulo
Shanghai
New York
Mexico City
Beijing
Jakarta
Lagos

Los Angeles

What is food security?

Food security exists when
“all people at all times have
access to the food they need
for a healthy active life”.

Achieving food security
depends on four key factors:

Availability of adequate
food supplies - there must
be enough food to ensure
that each person's daily

energy and nutrient needs
can be met.

Access to sufficient food -
even in a country with
adequate food supplies, food
security does not exist for

those who cannot afford to
buy enough and/or grow
their own.

Stability of supplies - severe
fluctuations in food
availability or accessibility,
caused by such factors as
droughts, floods, sharp price
increases or seasonal
unemployment, leave people
vulnerable.

Cultural acceptability - use of
certain foods, food
combinations or handling
methods can be preempted by
religious or cultural taboos.

About one-third of the
people In cities of the
developing world live
In desperately
overcrowded slums
and squatter
settlements.

DIMENSIONS OF MID FOOD AND PEOPLE

Copyrightedmaterial

THE SEARCH FOR FOOD SECURITY

Arable land per caput

Hectares

1950 70 90 2050 *

* bawl on UN PopUatwn
DwnKMft low. m«»ufn and tagh
popUaUon provenons

Pressures on resources for food production

A lthough the volume of
agricultural production
has doubled over the past
30 years, this progress has
bypassed many countries and
peoples: in sub-Saharan Africa
nutritional levels have actually-
fallen since the 1970s.

Poverty' is the root cause of
undernutrition in a world
which has been able to increase
overall food production. The
major problem is that the
increases are spread unevenly
around the globe, and that the
poor cannot afford to buy what
is produced.

An increasing population
has to live off a dwindling
supply of arable land and
increasingly limited water
resources. There is a vicious
circle between increasing
poverty and resource
degradation. This makes it

vital to achieve sustainable
forms of agriculture.

Sustainable agricultural and
rural development conserves
land, water and plant and
animal genetic resources. It is
environmentally non-degrading
and technically appropriate, as
well as being economically
viable and socially acceptable.

Some improvements are
already accessible to the small
farmers who form the
majority- of food producers.
They include a range of
farming practices designed to
reduce the need for high levels
of expensive farm inputs such
as chemical fertilizers and
pesticides. Integrated plant
nutrition uses a combination
of organic and mineral sources
of soil nutrients with tillage
and crop rotation to increase
crop production; and

integrated pest management
(IPM) which reduces the need
for chemical pesticides by-
making use of biological
controls to minimize disease
and damage by pests.

To achieve sustainable food
production and security, poor
farmers need access to finance
and productive resources,
including advice and technical
help. Rural incomes, status of
women, diets and food
distribution systems need to
be improved. Agricultural
waste will have to be reduced.
Lind and other resources will
have to be distributed more
equitably. At the same time,
progress in reducing
population growth will help
relieve pressure on resources
and bring food production
and supplies into balance with
needs and demand.

International Conference on Nutrition

In December 1992, some
159 countries and the
European Community
gathered in Rome for the
International Conference on
Nutrition. Organized jointlv
by FAO and WHO, the
Conference adopted a broad-
based plan of action to
combat malnutrition.

The Conference had nine
major themes:

• Improving household food
security

• Preventing and managing
infectious diseases

• Promoting breast-feeding

• Caring for the socio-
economically deprived and
nutritionally vulnerable

• Promoting appropriate diets
and healthy lifestyles

• Protecting consumers
through improved food
quality and safety

• Preventing and combating
specific micronutrient
deficiencies

• Assessing, analysing and
monitoring nutrition levels

• Incorporating nutrition
objectives into development
policies and programmes.

The participating states agreed
to take all necessary steps to
eliminate, before the end of this
decade:

• Famine and famine-related
deaths

• Starvation and nutritional
deficiency diseases in
communities affected by-

natural and man-made
disasters

• Iodine and vitamin A
deficiencies.

They also pledged to reduce
substantially within this decade:

• Starvation and w idespread
chronic hunger

• Undernutrition, especially
among children, women and
the aged

• Other important
micronutrient deficiencies,
including iron

• Diet-related communicable
and non-communicable
diseases

• Social and other
impediments to optimal
breast-feeding

• Inadequate sanitation and
poor hygiene, including
unsafe drinking w-ater.

By 1995, some 90 countries
were launching national
programmes designed to
reduce malnutrition and
improve diets.

REPUBLIQUE DE QyiN EE

FOOD AND PEOPLE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Protect

and

Produce

Dimensions of Need

Copyrighted material

Fertile soil ready for
planting chick peas,
Jordan.

Soli limits agriculture

Percentages of total
world land area

F I Soil too dry

I i Chemical

problems
tn sod too
shallow

I I Soil too wet

I I Permafrost

■■ No limitations

Only 1 1 percent of
the world’s soils can
be farmed without
being irrigated,
drained or otherwise
improved.

ÎK

The soil

Plough layer

Deep plough layer

Subsoil layer

Parent rock layer

S oil covers most of the land
surface of the earth in a
thin layer, ranging in thickness
from a few centimetres to
several metres. It is
composed of inorganic
matter (rock and
3 mineral particles),

organic matter (decaying
^ plants and animals),
living plants and animals
(many of them microscopic),
water and air.

Basically, soil forms as
rocks slowly crumble away.

Air and water collect between
the particles, and chemical
changes occur. Plants take
root, binding the particles
together, shielding the surface
from the elements, drawing up
minerals from lower layers
and attracting animal life.
Bacteria and fungi break
down plant and animal
remains into fertile humus.

The speed of this process
varies. In prairie regions with

ample rain and organic inputs,
it may take 50 years to build
up a few centimetres of soil; in
mountainous areas it can take
thousands of years. The
process of destruction as a
result of misuse or erosion is
much quicker. Once completely-
destroyed, soil is for all
practical purposes lost for ever.

Fertile soils teem with life.
Porous loamy soils are the
richest of all, laced with
organic matter which retains
water and provides the
nutrients needed by crops.
Sand and clay soils tend to
have less organic matter and
have drainage problems: sand
is very porous and clay is
impermeable. Only 1 1 percent
of the earth’s soils have no
inherent limitations for
agriculture. The rest are either
too wet, too dry, too shallow,
chemically unsuitable or
permanently frozen.

To grow, plants need

nitrogen, phosphorus,
potassium and a range of
other elements. However
fertile the soil, growing crops
will use up its nutrients.
Farmers once compensated for
this by spreading animal
manure and plant waste on
their fields. Increasingly, these
have been replaced by man-
made fertilizers.

Organic matter maintains
the soil structure. It also acts
as a buffer for chemical
fertilizers, adding to their
beneficial effects and reducing
possible harm. In fact, the
organic content and structure
of the soil has to be managed
as carefully as the nutrient
content.

As agriculture has become
more intensive and extensive,
mineral fertilizer use has
increased. Between 1 98 1 and
1991, the world’s annual use
of fertilizers rose from 8 1 to
96 kilograms per hectare of

PROTECT AND PRODUCE PIMI NMONSOI

THE SOIL

A profile of the soil reveals a
sequence of horizons, varying
in colour and texture according
to their composition.

Plant roots work their way
between the soil particles,
binding and aerating the soil.

Soil texture variation

<S>

<§■

Sandy

clay

Sandy
day loam

Clay

Clay loam

Loam

£> Sandy

Loamy loam

* Sand Mnd

Silty

day

Silty

day loam

Silty loam

Silt

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 to

Soil fertility is a key
factor in determining
agricultural potential.
All plants take up
nutrients from the soil
as they grow; these
nutrients are romoved
with any plant that
is harvested. Crop
rotation or fertilizers
are required to
prevent even the best
soils being depleted
by fanning.

Percent sand

Source Gcoqrapfty in Diagrams. CUP

Soil texture varies with particle size from clay (fine) through silt (medium)
to sand (coarse). The larger the particles the larger the spaces between
them so water drains fast through sand but day gets waterlogged quickly.
Texture depends largely on the bedrock - shales yield finer soils than
sandstones - but most soils contain a mixture of particle sizes in different
proportions. Loam is best for plant growth.

cropland. This average,
however, conceals huge
differences in usage -
Zimbabwe, one of Africa's
higher users, used only
56 kilograms per hectare a
year in 1989-91.

When fertilizer levels
correspond to the needs of
specific soils and crops and
the structure of soil is
conserved, yields can be
sustained indefinitely. Over-
use or under-use of fertilizer
can lead to crop failures.
Over-application can also
cause pollution: excess
nutrients leach out of the soil
into groundwater, streams,
rivers and lakes, making their
water unfit for consumption
or boosting the growth of
algae, which can suffocate
entire aquatic ecosystems.

The production of food
depends on healthy agricultural
systems. ‘lítese in turn depend
on healthy soils.

Fertilizer use

Average annual fertilizer use

Kilograms per hectare of crop land, selected countries

1979-81

1989-91

Japan

Egypt

B 402 Oocrtasn of 10 since 1979-31

l —

United Kingdom

Area of the
former USSR — 1
Mexico
South Africa
Brazil
Kenya

Papua New Guinea
Argentina CD 6 (*?)

Zaire D 1 (no significant increase)

Maize farming
experiment, Nicaragua.
Scientists will use
the results to teach
local farmers how best
to cultivate and
fertilize their land. In
the absence of any
constraints such as
availability of water,
judicious use of
fertilizers can raise
yields by 30 percent,
but over-use can do
more harm than good.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copy righted^ aterial

TYPICAL SOIL
PROFILES

THE SOIL

Luvisols present
few problems for
agriculture.

With moderate
management they
can be extremely
productive.

Gleysols are poorly
drained. With
appropriate drainage
and water control,
however, they can be
developed to at least
medium agricultural
potential.

Vertisols are dark
clays and difficult to
work. Good
management can
bring them to medium
or high potential.

Soils either too dry or too cold
Shallow soils
Sandy soils
I Dark clays
I Saline soils

Acid soils of tropical/subtropical lowlands
I Soils of tropical/subtropical highlands
I Ferruginous soils
I Poorly drained soils
I Soils with few problems

Ferralsols are acid
and found in tropical
or subtropical
lowlands. With
appropriate
management they
offer medium to high
potential for selected
crops.

Opeo

surface P/ II Unstable f« JSodietty

„ U ¡5? U

Organic

matter rn Slow E^lRock

I- -1 permeability f 21

Main soli association

Soils too dry

Soils too cold

Shallow soils

Sandy soils

Soil components

Hot deserts:
Calcisols, Gypsisols
and shifting sand

Very cold areas:
Permafrost, getic
soil units, glaciers

leptosols and lithic
phases of other soils.
Rocky terrain

Arenosols,
Regosols,
Podzols, otheç

dunes soils with

coarse textun

Agricultural potential Nil for rain-fed Nil or very low Generally low.

agriculture; medium Some potential

to high locally when for grazing

irrigation is possible

Low to mediu
depending on
nutrients andfc
moisture
management!
level

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

THE SOIL

Oark clays

Saline soils

Acid soils of sub/
tropical lowlands

Soils of sub/
tropical highlands

Ferruginous (iron-
rich) soils

Poorly drained
soils

Soils with
few problems

Vertisols. vertic
soli units

Solonchaks, Solonetz,
saline and sodic
phases of other
soil units.

Salt hats

Ferralsols, Acrisots,
Alisols. dystric and
humic Nltisols,
Petroferrlc phases
of other soils

Andosols,
euric Nltisols

Ferric Luvisols,
Lixisols. ferralic
Cambisots

Gleysols. Fluvisols,
Histosols, Ptanosols.
gleyic soil units

Luvisols, Cambisms,

Chernozems,

Kastanozems,

Phaeozems;

Podzoluvisols.

Greyzems

Workability problems,
but medium to high
when well managed

Generally low.
Reclaimed land has
low to medium
production potential

Medium to high
(Nitisols) with
adapted crop
selection and

management

Medium to high If
phosphorus fixation
problems are
overcome

Only medium
potential, even with
good management

Medium to high
potential with
adapted water and
drainage control.

Low in Histosols,
Planosols and acid
sulphate Fluvisols

High to very high
with moderate to
good management;
low (but with

forestry potential)
for Podzoluvisols,
Greyzems

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copy rightecrtVi aterial

> ft#

Although water
covers 75 percent of
the world's surface,

97.5 percent of the
earth’s water is salt
water of the
remaining

2.5 percent, most is
locked away as
groundwater or in
glaciers.

• 'íl' • * íF4¿- : w/* J6* u '¿ • ¿i

Water:

A finite resource

W ithout water our planet
would be a barren
wasteland. Of the three main
ways in which people use
water - municipal (drinking
water and sewage treatment),
industrial and agricultural
(mostly irrigation) - farming
accounts for the largest part,
some 65 percent globally in
1990.

Water is a finite resource:
there are some 1 400 million
cubic kilometres on earth and
circulating through the
hydrological cycle. Nearly all
of this is salt water and most
of the rest is frozen or under
ground. Only one-hundredth
of I percent of the world's

water is readily available for
human use.

This would be enough to
meet humanity's needs - if it
were evenly distributed. But it
is not. In Malaysia 100 people
share each million cubic metres
of water; in India, the figure is
350 and in Israel, 4 Ü00. And
where there is water, it is often
polluted: nearly a third of the
population of developing
countries has no access to safe
drinking water.

In many countries, the
amount of water available to
each person is falling, as
populations rise. By the year
2000, Larin America’s per
caput water resources will

Where the water is

Distribution of the world's water

Percentages

Oceans 97.5

Freshwater 2.5
Ice-caps and glaciers 79

Groundwater 20

Easily accessible surface freshwater 1

Lakes 52
Soil moisture 38

Atmospheric water vapour 8
Rivers 1

Water within living organisms 1

have fallen by nearly
three-quarters since 1950. In
the twenty-first century the
main constraint on
development in Egypt will be
access to water, not land. Over
230 million people live in
countries - most of them in
Africa or the Near Hast -
where less than 1 000 cubic
metres of water is available per
person each year.

Even countries with greater
supplies are extracting too
much from their underground
water reserves. The water table
under Beijing is sinking by
2 metres every year, while
Bangkok’s has fallen by
25 metres since the 1950s. The
level of the vast Ogallala
aquifer, which lies beneath eight
US states, is dropping by nearly
1 metre a year.

Pollution exacerbates the
problem. Some 450 cubic-
kilometres of waste water are
poured into the world’s surface
waters every year: two-thirds of
the world’s available runoff is
used to dilute and bear it away.

A world short of water is
also an unstable world. More
than 200 river systems cross
international boundaries, and
13 rivers and lakes are shared
by 96 countries. Over-use or
pollution by countries
upstream can be devastating
for those downstream. Access
to water, particularly in areas
where rainfall is low or erratic,
is becoming a major political
issue and vital to national
interests.

Faced with these crises, the
world must learn to be less
wasteful and to manage its
water resources better. Methods
include conserving supplies,
using reservoirs and small dams
to catch runoff, recharging
aquifers, protecting watersheds
and recycling waste water in
agriculture and industry.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS Oh NUP

CONFINING BEDS

WATER: A FINITE RESOURCE

The hydrological cycle

1900 1920 1940 1960 1960 2000

Annual water use

Estimated annual world water use

Cubic kilometres per year
IB Reservoir losses
Municipal
r~~l Industry
Agriculture

1 000

Water availability and water scarcity

Water availability by region

Thousand cubic metres per caput

1950 gj 2000

20.6

SMircv* MO IN! WwW ■ »m*r
AftMttffq Tht Resource

37.2

105.0

Water-scarce countries

i based tm lesa than 1 000 cube metre
amlUbln p*r caput per yetri

Since 1955

Bahrain. Barbados,

Djibouti. Jordan. Kuwait,
Malta, Singapore

Since 1990

Algeria, Burundi, Cape Verde,
Israel. Kenya. Malawi. Qatar,
Rwanda, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Tunisia.

United Arab Emirates, Yemen

By 2025*

Comoros. Egypt. Ethiopia,
Haiti, Iran, Libya. Morocco,
Oman, South Africa. Syria
•’Peru, Tanzania, Zimbabwe
•"Cyprus

* on UN popularen proçecwns
•• en medwn prciectans
••• on higfi protection only

DIMENSIONS Ol NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrighted Material

WATER: A FINITE RESOURCE

Finding enough water
can be a formidable
task. Water-scarce
countries must
balance strategies for
increasing water
supply against risks of
upsetting the delicate
balance of the local
ecosystem.

irrigation losses

Percentages

5~~1 Field application
losses

I I Farm distribution
losses

i I Transmission to
farm

H Water

effectively used
by crop

Irrigation

I rrigation systems have
existed for almost as long as
settled agriculture. Five
thousand years ago, the
ancient Egyptians used the
waters of the Nile to irrigate
their crops. Two thousand
years later, the great
civilizations of the Fertile
Crescent, stretching from the
eastern Mediterranean to the
Persian Gulf, were built on
irrigated agriculture.

Irrigation is essential to
feeding the world. Although
only 17 percent of the world's
cropland is irrigated, it
produces over 33 percent of our
food, making it roughly two
and a half times as productive
as rain-fed agriculture.

In spite of the pressing need
for expansion, less new land is
now being brought under
irrigation than in the early
1970s. This is because of the
shortage of suitable land, the
rising cost of constructing
irrigation systems and the
scarcity of water itself.
Bureaucratic interference,
faulty management, lack
of involvement of users,
interrupted water
supplies and poor
construction have all led
to poor performance,
which has discouraged
investment. In some cases up
to 60 percent of the water
withdrawn for use in irrigation
never reaches the crops.

In addition, waterlogging
and salinization have sapped
the productivity of nearly
50 percent of the world s
irrigated lands. Unless irrigated
fields are properly drained,
salts can build up in the soil,
making the land infertile.
Salinity affects 23 percent of
China’s irrigated land and 21
percent of Pakistan's.

Overhead pivot spray (top),
irrigation canal (middle).
Irrigational flooding (bottom).

Other problems include the
accumulation of pollutants and
sediments in large dams and
reservoirs, and the fact that
irrigation systems provide an
ideal habitat for the vectors of
waterborne diseases.

The key to improved
irrigation lies in more efficient
use of water; recycling waste
water and proper drainage.
Drip irrigation and low-
pressure spray systems are
now being used in over 20
countries to deliver water
directly to crops. Small dams,
located closer to agricultural
areas, are replacing large ones.
Canals are being lined with
concrete and covered to reduce
seepage and evaporation.
Several countries now use
treated waste water for
irrigation; Israel was using up
to 30 percent of its urban
waste water in this way as
early as 1987.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIM! \slO.\N OK NtfcD

WATER: A FINITE RESOURCE

Heavily salted

Stfntty affects as much
at one-quarter of the
irrigated land In some
countries:

Percentage
Country salinated

Meneo 10

Indu 11

Pakistan 21

Ctiina 23

United States 28

Percentage of land irrigated

r *■"**''

Salt of the earth threatens production on irrigated land

FAO estimates that salt buildup has severely damaged about 30 million of the world’s
237 million hectares of irrigated farmland. As much as 80 milbon hectares more are
affected to some degree, with about 1 .5 million hectares of irrigated land lost each year
to waterlogging and salinity.

Unless salts arc
washed down below
root level, soil salinity will
stunt growth and eventually
kill off all but the most
resistant plants.

Sowt * s FAO. Hatiam/Geograptoc

soil drainage

is often

evaporation

IS low

Irrigation can ralsa
groundwater levels to within
a metre of the surface, bringing up
more dissolved salts from the aquifer,
subsoil and root zone.

Poor drainage and evaporation concentrate salts
on Irrigated land. Even good quality irrigation
water contains soma dissolved salt and can
leave behind tonnes of salt per hectare
each year.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrighte erial

Soil erosion by water,
Costa Rica. It is
estimated that,
worldwide, 5-7 million
hectares of land
valuable to agriculture
are lost every year
through erosion and
degradation.

Restoring the land

S oil erosion is a natural
phenomenon: it has
occurred over the millenia as
part of geological processes
and climate change. However,
erosion is more severe now»:
globally, moderate to severe
soil degradation affects almost
2 000 million hectares of
arable and grazing land - an
area larger than that of the
United States and Mexico
combined. More than
55 percent of this damage is
caused by water erosion and
nearly 33 percent by wind
erosion.

Every year soil erosion and
other forms of land
degradation rob the world of
5-7 million hectares of
farming land. Every year
25 000 million tonnes of
topsoil are washed away:
China’s Huang River alone
dumps 1 600 million tonnes a
year into the sea. The United
States has lost about one-third
of its topsoil since settled
agriculture began. Worldwide,
soil erosion puts the
livelihoods of nearly 1 000
million people at risk.

Impact of soil erosion

1 Deforestation

2 Steep land being cultivated down the slope

3 Monocrops grown over large areas

9 Urban slums grow as rural population
migrates to the city

10 Bridge destroyed by floods

11 Crops grown on large unprotected fields

12 Wind erosion affects badly managed pasture

13 Frequently flooded village Is deserted

4 Landslide blocks road

5 Fish catch reduced in shallow waters

6 Stltabon cuts hydroelectric plant's lifespan

7 Gully erosion eats into crop land

8 Mud banks reduce navigability of rtvers

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

North and Central
America: 158
106

6 ;

7 ^ 39

Southwest Pacific: 103

2
1

What are the causes of soil degradation?

Soil erosion mostly occurs
when there is no vegetation
to protect the soil from being
washed or blown away.
Clearing forests, growing
crops on steep slopes or on
large fields without
protection, can all lead to
erosion. So can ploughing
too deeply, failing to rotate
crops, planting crops up and
down hills rather than along
their contours or grazing too
many animals on one piece
of land. Soil degradation in
developing countries is

closely linked to
poverty: both personal and
national. Poor farmers, with
no resources to fall back on,
may be forced to put
immediate needs before the
long-term health of the land.
Governments, under pressure
from foreign debt, weak
commodity prices and the
needs of their urban
populations, coupled with
domestic policies that arc
biased against agriculture,
often fail to give adequate
support to rural people.

Soil degradation by area and type

Million hectares

I — ) Water erosion
IH wind erosion

Chemical degradation
Physical degradation

» r.

Degraded soils

Overgrazing and
deforestation leave the
land prone to erosion.
Vegetation renewal can
reduce further damage,
binding the soil and
protecting it from the
destructive action of
wind and rain.

Ma|or causes of soil
degradation

Percentages

34.5 Overgrazing

29.5 Deforestation

n Mismanagement
of arable land

1.0 Other

South America: 243

123

8 49

70 42

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrighted^ aterial

RESTORING THE LAND

Biological techniques
of erosion control are
the most important.
Planting the right crop
and growing it in the
right way is much
cheaper than physical
protection and can
give immediate
returns to the farmer,
encouraging wider
use.

Fighting erosion

T he effects of erosion are
legion. Soil washed off hare
hillsides ruins aquatic habitats
and clogs waterways.
Reservoirs silt up. cutting the
lifespan of hydroelectric
schemes. Riverbeds rise,
increasing the risk of floods.

Erosion can, however, be
reduced. And eroded land can
he restored.

The weapons in the fight
against erosion fall into two
categories - biological and
physical. The biological
approach involves matching
crops to soils, and farming
methods to terrain. Physical
techniques include building
terraces and dams, controlling
gullies (by, for instance,
planting trees) and overall
watershed management.

In the 1930s, wind erosion
devastated millions of hectares
of farmland in the United
States. As a result the
Government set up an
agricultural extension service
to train farmers in soil
conservation. They were
taught to farm along the
contours, to plough less deeply
and to plant trees, hedges and
grass around the edges of
fields. Crop rotation was
introduced, giving soils a
chance to recover nutrients,
and irrigation was made
available. Productivity was
restored within a few years.

In 1979, the Chinese
authorities, supported by the
United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and FAO,
set up a project in Mi/.hi
County on the Loess Plateau,
one of the world’s most eroded
regions. Nearly two-thirds of
the land in Mizhi slopes at an
angle of over 20 degrees. Soil
improvement methods
included turning steep slopes

over to permanent vegetation,
terracing and gully control.
Farmers were encouraged to
replace annual crops with
perennials, such as alfalfa,
which would hold the soil in
place from year to year, and to
diversify into small animal
husbandry and fruit growing.
Total food production has risen
by about 70 percent, in spite of
the fact that the cultivated area
has been halved.

In southern Morocco in the
mid-1970s, palm plantations,
villages and roads were being
buried under wind-blown sand
released by overgrazing and
wood cutting. In the 1980s,
three methods of stabilizing the
sand dunes proved successful:

using chequerboard patterns of
palm branches to protect
vegetation from the wind,
erecting fihro-cement
windbreaks and sculpting the
sandbanks on road verges so as
to encourage the wind to carry
sand away rather than allow it
to settle. These techniques
saved villages, palm plantations
and many irrigation canals,
roads and railways from the
desert.

In Niger, FAO s enormous
Keita project has transformed a
barren landscape into a
flourishing environment for
crops and livestock - so much
so that the area can now he
seen from space as a green
patch in the desert.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE OIMFNMO.MS OF NFED

RESTORING THE LAND

Combating soil erosion

The Kelta project In Niger. Fences built of millet stalks hinder dune migration by
wind action in the long dry season (above). Check dams, built by filling wire mesh
cages with stones, reduce water erosion in seasonal floods (top left). New farming
techniques allow crops to be grown on land never cultivated before (left).

1 Reforested land

2 Gully erosion halted by check dams and trees planted on gully banks

3 Steep land is bench-terraced

4 Contour cultivation practised on lower land

5 Bunds are built to control surface runoff

6 New reservoir supplies power to nearby villages

7 Shelter belts reduce wind erosion, pastures are improved or upgraded
• Crop rotation practised in strips along contours

9 Tree crops grown on eyebrow terraces on steep land
10 Forested slopes prevent slltation of reservoirs

J '' .nal

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyr

How many people can
the land support?

Many countries are
simply mining their
agricultural resources
and degrading, in
some cases
Irreversibly, the very
basis of their future
survival and
prosperity.

T he earth could, in theory,
feed very many more
people than now inhabit the
globe. But, in practice, good
soils, favourable climates,
rainfall and fresh water arc
unevenly spread around the
world - and do not
necessarily correspond to
distribution of population. So
while some countries can
produce an excess of food,
others struggle with
inadequate resources. Many
developing countries are
overexploiting their soils and
several need to wrest food
from land poorly suited to
agricultural production.

FAO has been mapping and
assessing the world’s land
resources and agroclimates
since the early 1960s. In the
1970s it began a decade-long
study of 117 developing
countries to see which could
grow enough food on their
available land for their
populations. The srudy -
carried out with the support of
the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) and in
collaboration with the
International Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis
(II AS A) - calculated the
numbers each country could
theoretically support under a
simplified scenario: use of all
potentially arable rain-fed land
(plus irrigated land)
disregarding the needs for
other uses, at three input levels
- low (using traditional
subsistence agriculture),
intermediate (using some
fertilizer and a combination of
current and improved crop
varieties) and high (the
equivalent of Western
European levels of farming).

It found, based on these
assumptions, that even in 1 975,
54 countries could nor feed
their populations with

Countries with high levels ot manufactured exports,
mineral or fossil resources are more likely to be able
to afford to import food and fertilizers.

Critical countries

m With high inputs
■■ With intermediate inputs
I ■ With low inputs
Agricultural production can be improved
by raising the level of inputs. Countries
with low inputs have a greater
opportunity to improve production.

□

Critical countries with manufactured
exports of over USS 100 million per year in
1979 or 1980

Critical countries with significant wealth in
fuel minerals

Limitations on crop potential

Constraints on land with crop
production potential in developing
countries

Percentage of total rain-fed land area

I No constraints

I I Constraints on crop production

Islwp dopes, stialow sols, low natural tcrallty poor
»(l Oarage. sand» wits, stony Kite, dry soils,
chtrmca! praWfrasl

Sub-Saharan Africa

North Africa and Near East

South Asia

East Asia (excluding China)
Latin America and Caribbean

traditional methods of food
production and .38 percent of
the entire land area - home to
1 165 million people - was
carrying more inhabitants
than it could theoretically
support. With populations
projected to the year 2000, it
estimated that 64 countries -
more than half the total -
would be facing a critical
situation; at low input levels 38
would then be unable to

support even half their
projected populations. Twenty-
eight of the 64 would cease to
he critical if they could raise
their agriculture to the
intermediate level, as would
another 17 if they could reach
Western European standards.
But 19 would still not be able
to produce enough food, even
then - and while some of these
are wealthy enough to be able
to import food, others are

PROTECT ANO PROOUCE

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN THE LAND SUPPORT?

The amount of
cultivable land on

among the poorest countries

on earth.

Much of the agricultural
area of a country or a region
has limitations (see chart) that
may make it less suitable for
arable farming. 1995 FAO
estimates of arable land in use
compared with the area
potentially suitable show
similarly wide differences
between regions and
countries, with some

countries having essentially no
arable land reserves, such as

Tunisia and Burundi, and
others having large amounts,
for example Angola, Guyana
and Brazil. Part of these gross
land reserves are not available
for conversion, however,
because of other uses including
forestry, grazing or
conservation.

Against this background,
FAO s 1995 study. World

Agriculture: Towards 2010,
estimated net cereal import
requirements increasing from
about 8 million tonnes to
19 million tonnes for sub-
Saharan Africa; 38 to 71
million tonnes for the Near
Fast and North Africa; 27 to
35 million tonnes for East
Asia (excluding China); and 5
to 10 million tonnes for South
Asia, primarily as a result of
shortages of arable land.

earth is finite, making
inputs necessary to
feed the increasing
population.

The map shows countries which,
_ m with differing levels of agricultural
♦ inputs such as fertilizers and
irrigation, are projected to be
dependent on food imports by the
year 2000.

Cultivated areas and gross reserves

Land under cultivation and land with crop production potential in developing countries

Million hectares

Total land with crop
production potential
(including land in use) -

Land in use. 2010
Land in use. 1988-90

Sub-Saharan

Africa

228

184

195

103

191

217

190

North Africa
and Near East

South East Asia
Asia (excluding China)

Latin America
and Caribbean

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copy righted 'material

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAW THE LAND SUPPORT?

Much of the land in
developing countries
is not suited to rain-
fed agriculture, but of
the potentially
productive land, only
about one-third is
cultivated. The scale
of the map does not
allow some Important
cropland areas, for
example in West
Africa, to be shown.
Also, land shown as
mainly suitable for
one use may well be
suited for other uses.

Agroclimatical
information, when
combined with soil
data, indicates where
crops can best be
grown.

I Mainly productive crop, pasture
and forest land
Mainly suitable for crops if
improved

Mostly suitable for forest
Mainly suitable for forest
tree crops or permanent
pastures

Mostly suitable for grazing,
marginal for cereals
Predominantly unproductive
land

Five steps to getting the best use from the land

Climatic requirements of crops

Assess crop
requirements

Climate
Son

Rainfall

Growing period Climatic

select crops
by climate

To help identify the optimum sustainable
use for all cultivable land in the developing
world, an FAO study demonstrated which
land, down to 10 square kilometres, Is best
suited to each ol the 1 1 major crops grown
in the developing world. These data are of
vital importance to developing world
governments striving to provide food security
for their populations.

productivity

Combines (4)
with data on sod
constraints to
provide guidance
on the most
suitable land
use/crop and
levels of inputs
needed

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS Of NEED |a|

Fisheries at the limit?

F ishing is an important
source of highly nutritious
food, income and employment.
Millions of people in Asia get
most of their dietary protein
from the aquatic harvest. In
all, marine and inland fisheries
provide nearly 30 percent of
the region’s animal protein; in
Africa the proportion is
21 percent; in Latin America,

8 percent. About 30 percent of
world production is turned
into fishmeal to fatten
livestock or farmed fish
rather than eaten directly by
humans.

About 60 percent of the
world fish harvest is caught by
developing countries where
100 million people depend on
fishing and related industries
for their livelihoods. By far the
majority of world fish taken,
some 85 percent, comes from
the oceans. Although fish
farming is gaining ground.

fishing is still the main
expression of man’s ancient
role as a hunter-gatherer.

Since 1950 the world fish
catch, excluding aquaculture,
has increased fivefold - rising
from 20 million tonnes to peak
at slightly less than 90 million
tonnes in 1989. This period of
expansion was made possible
in large part by the introduction
of new technologies and the
spread of fishing fleets from
traditional fishing areas to new
ones, many of them in the
southern hemisphere. No
major commercial fish stock
remains untouched. By the
beginning of the 1990s, about
69 percent of the stocks for
which data were available to
FAO were either fully to
heavily exploited (44 percent),
overexploited (16 percent),
depleted (6 percent) or very
slowly recovering from
overfishing (3 percent). As a

result, the world catch has
fallen in recent years although
it now seems to be levelling off
at around 85 million tonnes
per year.

The world’s fishing fleet has
grown twice as fast as catches
and there are now about
3.5 million vessels worldwide.
Asia has the largest fleet with
42 percent of the total
registered tonnage, followed
by the republics of the
former USSR with 30 percent.
Africa has the smallest one at
2.7 percent. Government
subsidies have helped keep
most big fishing fleets
afloat: in 1989 the world’s
20 largest fishing nations
paid out US$ 54 000 million
in subsidies to catch
USS 70 000 million worth
of fish. Such overcapacity has
led to chronic overfishing
with too many boats chasing
too few fish.

Fish production and utilization

World fish production* Thousand tonnes
0 10 000 20 000 30 000

1950 k 20

40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 80 000 90 000 100 000

World fish utilization Thousand tonnes
0 10 000 20 000 30 000

1950 ■ 20 750

1960
1970
1980
1990
1993

TncUJinQ Muatüture production, eictjdinp Aquatic planes

40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 80 000 90 000 100 000

H Feed

Human consumption

Compared with
other agricultural
commodities, fish plays
an important
role as an earner of
foreign exchange: net
exports of fishery
products by developing
countries were more
than USS 1 1 000
million in 1993, much
higher than coffee,
bananas, rubber, tea,
meat rice or other
typical commodities.

Contribution of fish to
human diet, 1987-89

Fish as percentage ot
total animal protein
intake

North America
6.6

Latin America
and Caribbean

8.2

Western Europe

9.7

Africa

21.1

Near East
7A
Far East

27.8

101 270

97 593
m * 101 270

DIM I NSIONS OF M I D PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrightecfkiaterial

FISHERIES AT THE LIMIT?

Top ten fishing
nations, 1993

Thousand tonnes

Japan

Peru

8 451

Chile
6 038

United States
5 939

Russian Federation
L 4 461

India
4 175

Indonesia
3 638

Thailand
3 348

Republic ot Korea
2 649

N early 70 percent of the
world’s marine fish stocks
are in trouble and urgently in
need of conservation. Catches
have collapsed in the Black
Sea; less than 200 000 tonnes
of fish were landed in 1991,
compared to 1 million tonnes
in the late 1 980s. Stocks of
bottom-living fish in the Hast
China and Yellow Seas have
fallen to between one-fifth and
one-tenth of their highest
levels. Other crisis areas
include the Northwest and
Northeast Atlantic, the North
Sea, the Mediterranean and
Black Seas, the Central Baltic,
the Gulf of Thailand and rhe
Western Central Pacific.

Nearly all the inland fisheries
of Asia and Africa also show
signs of overexploitation.

Attempts to manage marine
fisheries have generally failed.
Instead conflicts have grown
as stocks have fallen.
Developed country fleets have
clashed over fisheries in both
the Northwest and Northeast
Atlantic while large-scale
commercial fleets arc at odds
with small-scale artisanal
fishermen off many developing
countries.

The international fishery
commissions, established
under the auspices of FAO (the
first in 1948), have broadened
the scope of management
options and included many
developing countries, but have
so far had little success other
than trying to impose quotas
and regulate fishing gear and
boat size. But they provide the
mechanisms for sustainable
fisheries management if
countries would show the
necessary cooperation and
political will.

The third UN Convention
on the l.aw of the Sea, which

AREA 18
ARCTIC

Figures unavailable

WESTERN CENTRAL

catch: 1 910
(UNITED STATES, Mexico,

PACIFIC, NORTHEAST

Total catch: 3 386
(UNITED STATES. Canada)

AREA 77

PACIFIC, EASTERN CENTRAL

Total catch: 1 247
(Mexico)

AREA 87
PACIFIC,
SOUTHEAST

Total catch: 14 980
(PERU. CHILE,
Ecuador)

AHcA U1

PACIFIC. SOUTHWEST

Total catch: 777
(New Zealand)

SOUTH AMERICA

Total catch: 386

AREA 41
ATLANTIC,
SOUTHWES'

Total catch: 2 1
(Argentina, Bra

AREA 88

PACIFIC, ANTARCTIC

Total catch: 1 am

came into force in 1994,
enables coastal states to
establish exclusive economic
zones, usually stretching 200
miles from their shores, where
they have complete control of
resources - providing a new
opportunity for better
regulation. In 1994 work
started on drafting a Code of
Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries under the auspices of
FAO, offering hope - if it is
observed - of a new era in
fisheries management.

INTERNATIONAL RSHERY
COMMISSIONS r FAO fotory doc*)

Pacific Ocean

North Pacific Marine Science
Organization (PICES)

International North Pacific Fisheries
Commission (INPFC)

Inter-Amencan Tropical Tuna
Commission (IATTC)

Council of the Eastern Pacific Tuna
Fishing Agreement (CEPTFA)

Eastern Pacific Tuna Fishing
Organization (OAPA)

South Pacific Permanent Commission
(CPPS)

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

FISHERIES AT THE LIMIT?

Fishing zones World fish catches, 1993

Fish and shellfish, thousand tonnes

! ) 200 nautical mile EEZ (exclusive economic zone)

— FAO fishing area boundary

Area numbers 01-07 refer to inland fisheries. All other area numbers
refer to marine fisheries. Countries which caught over 200 000 tonnes
within each marine FAO area are listed and those which caught over
1 million tonnes are shown in capitals.

AREA 27 ATLANTIC, NORTHEAST
Total catch: to 788

(DENMARK. ICELAND, NORWAY. United Kingdom,
Russian Federation. Spain, France, Netherlands,
weden, Ireland, Germany. Faeroe Islands, Portuga

AREA 07

AREA OF THE FORMER USSR

Total catch: 595

AREA 37

MEDITERRANEAN & BLACK SEA

Total catch: 1 670 (Turkey, Italy)

AREA 05 J
EUROPE C.

Total catch: 487

AREA 61

■H PACIRC, NORTHWEST

' Total catch: 24 805

(CHINA, RUSSIAN FEDERATI IN.
REPUBLIC OF KOREA.
DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S
REPU6UC OF KOREA,
Poland , Hung Kong)

1 AREA 04
ASIA

Total catch: 13 300

ATLANTIC. EASTERN CENTRAL

Total catch: 2 941

(Spain. Morocco, Senegal, Ghana)

AREA 71
PACIFIC,

WESTERN CENTRAL

Total catch: 8 374
(THAILAND, INDONESIA,
PHILIPPINES, Viet Nam.
Japan, Malaysia)

AREA 51
INDIAN OCEAN.
WESTERN

Total catch: 3 834
(INDIA, Pakistan.
Iran. Sri Lanka)

AREA 47 1
ATLANTIC,
SOUTHEAST

Total catch: 1 429
(South Africa, Namibia.
Russian Federation)

AREA 57

INDIAN OCEAN. EASTERN

Total catch: 3 466
(India, Thailand, Myanmar,
Indonesia. Malaysia. Bangladesh)

AREA 88

AREA 46

ATLANTIC. ANTARCTIC

Total catch: 86

AREA 58

INDIAN OCEAN, ANTARCTIC
Total catch: 8

South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency
(FFA)

South Paafic Commission (SPC)

Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas

tntemationai Council for the Exploration
of the Sea (ICES)

North-East Atlantic Fisheries
Commission (NEAFC)

North Atlantic Salmon Commission
(NASCO)

Northwest Atlanbc Fishenes
Organization (NATO)

General Fisheries Council lor the
Mediterranean (GFCM) *

Fishery Committee for the Eastern
Central Atlantic (CECAF) •

Western Central Atlantic Fishery
Commission (WECAFC) *

Regional Fisheries Advisory Commission
for the Southwest Atlantic (CARPAS) *
International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlanbc Tunas (ICCAT)
International Commission tor the
Southeast Atlantic Fisheries (ICSEAF)

Indian Ocean and Indo-Padfic area

Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (I0TC) *

Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (IOFC) *
Indo-Pacific Fishery Commission (IPfC) ’

Other areas

International Whaling Commission (IWC)
Latin Amencan Organization for the
Development of Fisheries (OLDEPESCA)

Commission for the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources
(CCAMLR)

Commission for Inland Fisheries of Latin
America (COPESCAL) •

European Inland Fisheries Advisory
Commission (EJFAC) •

Committee for Inland Fishenes of Africa
(C1FA) *

Advisory Committee on Fisheries
Research (ACFR)

Top ten marine
catches. 1993

Thousand tonnes

Anchoveta

Alaska pollack

4 758

Chilean jack mackerel

3364

Japanese pilchard

2306

Capelin

■■¡■¡H 1 742

South American pilchard

MHÍHV1624

Atlantic herring

l 613

Skipjack tuna

1 365

Atlantic cod
HBI 1139
European pilchard
1 110

Total world catch,

1993

Top ten species
32 percent. ^

All other species
68 percent

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrightedsmaterial

- i> -

WÊÊm

Aquaculture is the
farming of aquatic
organisms, including
fish, molluscs,
crustaceans and
aquatic plants. The
proportion of world
total fish production
derived from
aquaculture doubled
in less than a decade
from 8 percent in
1984 to 16 percent in
1993.

Seaweed harvest,
India (above).

Carp farm, China
(right).

Carp (far right).

Aquaculture:

From hunter to farmer

P eople have been farming
fish tor thousands of
years. The C hinese raised fish
in ponds some 3 000 years
ago; the Romans farmed
oysters in shallow coastal
bays; and mediaeval monks in
Europe reared fish on table
scraps in ponds fertilized with
human waste.

Today aquaculture has
become big business in Asia,
Latin America, North America
and Europe. Smallcr-scale
activities, raising fish in village
ponds, also take place in some
sub-Saharan African countries
and in Asia, while Thai,
Indonesian, Chinese,
Malaysian and Filippino
farmers also farm fish in rice
paddies for their own
consumption.

These enterprises - whether
in large ponds, in sea cages or
in tiny backyard ponds - hold

much promise for meeting
increasing food demands. In
fact, with most capture
fisheries in decline, aquaculture
is the best way to maintain
and increase supplies of
saltwater and freshwater fish.

Fish farming expanded
greatly between 1984 and
1993, growing at an average
rate of 9 percent a year. In
1993, aquaculture produced
22.6 million tonnes of fish,
shellfish, invertebrates and
plants (mostly seaweed),
worth US$ 35 708 million. It
contributes 16 percent to
global fisheries production,
compared to just over
8 percent in 1984. Over half
of all freshwater fish
production comes from
aquaculture.

Asia accounted for nearly
87 percent of the world’s fish
farming output in 1993:

63 percent of its share was
produced by China, with
India as the next biggest
contributor.

The industry is
overwhelmingly concentrated
in the developing world,
which accounts for 85 percent
of output by volume and
71 percent by value. Exports
of high-value species such as
shrimp, prawns and salmon
earn much-needed foreign
currency for these countries.
Fish farming may increasingly
be the only way for some
poor communities, who rely
on fish and shellfish for the
bulk of their protein intake, to
maintain a healthy diet.

In spite of this promise,
aquaculture projects arc
vulnerable to disease and
environmental problems.
Overstocking and pollution
have devastated some Asian

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

and Latin American
freshwater operations. Marine
aquaculture is constrained by
the rising pollution of coastal
waters. Nutrient and organic
over-enrichment, the
accumulation of toxic
chemicals, microbial
contamination, siltation and
sedimentation all jeopardize
expansion. Where aquaculture
results in the degradation of
coastal mangroves, the
breeding grounds of many

wild species, it poses a

major threat to biological
diversity.

Better selection of
production sites to safeguard
the environment and sound
management techniques can
overcome most of these
difficulties. FAO expects
aquaculture’s output to double
in volume within the next
15 years.

The growth of aquaculture

Finfish, crustaceans and molluscs, million tonnes
■ Inland aquaculture i i Marine aquaculture

I 40 percent 6.93

Total global aquaculture production in 1993

By volume

(Total: 22 626 168 tonnes)

By value

(Total: USS 35 708 million)

Percentage shares:

Developing countries

Industrialized countries

Inland fisheries and aquaculture

The cultivation of carp has a long
tradition, particularly in Europe and Asia.
They still dominate aquaculture,
accounting for most of the fish
production. For home ponds they have
the advantage of being non-carnivorous
and so not requiring expensive protein-
rich foods.

Tilapia, the mainstay of small-scale
aquaculture for many poor farmers, have
spread far from their original African
home. Dubbed “the aquatic chicken"
they are most widely farmed in Asia,
particularly China, the Philippines and
Thailand.

About half of the annual harvest of
shrimp - a high value export product -
comes from aquaculture. Progress in the
production of shrimp over the past
10 years has been largely responsible
for a fourfold Increase in the annual
harvest of crustaceans.

Fish provides
17 percent of the
world’s animal protein;
In some countries the
figure is as high as
50 percent. With the
fish harvest from the
wild now dangerously
overstretched we
may have to depend
Increasingly upon
aquaculture to meet
demand for fish in
the future.

Top eleven aquaculture
producers, 1993

Tonnes

China

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PROOUCE

Forests of the world

«I

Forest types
(top to bottom):
boreal, Finland;
temperate rainlorest.
United States;
tropical rainforest,
Venezuela;

tropical dry, Australia;
temperate dry, Poland

T he world’s forests cover
some 3 400 million
hectares - an area the size of
North and South America
combined. They are sources of
raw materials and food, and
are essential for maintaining
agricultural productivity and
the environmental well-being
of the planet as a whole.

Trees and forests anchor the
soil and buffer the winds, thus
protecting against erosion hv
wind and water. They produce
oxygen and absorb carbon
dioxide, the major agent in
global warming. They
intercept rainfall, releasing it
slowly into soils, surface
waters and underground
aquifers. The water vapour
released from their foliage in
transpiration influences
climate and is a vital part of
the hydrological cycle.

Forests and woodlands vary
from the dense rainforests of
the tropics to East Africa’s
open woodland savannahs;
from mangroves to the mixed
temperate broadleaved and
boreal forests. But unmanaged
harvesting, ill-planned
clearance for farming, or
physiological pressures from
pollution can pose a threat to
any forest type.

During the 1980s more than
15 million hectares of tropical
forests were lost each year: the
overwhelming majority of the
deforestation was intended to
provide land for agriculture.
The largest losses occurred in
tropical moist deciduous
forests, the areas best suited
for settlement and farming.

The extent of these forests
declined by 6 1 million hectares
- more than 10 percent of
their area - while 46 million
hectares, or 60 percent, of
tropical rainforests were lost.
Hew of these areas have been
replanted.

Global distribution of forests

Natural forest, 1990

Percentage of total land area

40 and over
20.0-39.9
□ 10.0-19.9
CZI 5.0 -9.9
Œ] 1.0- 4.9
Under 1 0

[ I Insufficient data

Boundaries at nabons termed since 1990 tin farmer USSR in termer
Vupstiwa. m former CjeansJasakit. Eritrea) are sfrown in grei
• 1990 figures rat mvtttle 1 1100 tipra uwiii
Sources FAQ. United Motions Economic Commission to/ Europe

Tree cover is increasing
in many temperate regions,
mainly due to the
establishment of forest
plantations. Europe increased
its forest and wooded land by
2 percent over the 1980s and
there were small increases in
New Zealand and Australia.
In the same decade, however,
a drop of some 3.5 million
hectares occurred in the
United States. The area of the
former USSR reported an
increase between 1 978 and
1988. However, there is an
urgent need to bring many of
the Siberian forests under

sustainable management to
avoid their degradation. As
well as managing some forests
for production, diversity
should he preserved in others
by designating protected
areas.

Many forests in
industrialized countries have
been damaged by airborne
pollutants, including acid rain:
the International Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA) has estimated that
USS 60 000 million would
have to be spent annually for
25 years to protect Europe’s
forests from pollution.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIM» . j a |

FORESTS OF THE WORLD

More than half the
earth's land area was
once forest. Now, the
figure is less than
one-third - around
3 400 million hectares.
Forests are cleared
and degraded at a rate
of 300 000 hectares
per week.

Where the forests are

IB Boreal forest
■■ Temperate forest
Tropical forest

Projected uses and speed of destruction

Consumption of forest products

Cubic metres

E*n Developing countries
■I Developed countries

3 000

Fuelwood Industrial Sawnwood
& charcoal roundwood

Percentage change in natural forest cover, 1980-90 Selected developing countries

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

-53

-33

-29

-25

-12

-10

-6

Actual area lost,
thousand hectares

Jamaica
Bangladesh
Thailand
Costa Rica
Dominican Rep.

Ecuador
Mexico
Myanmar
Un. Rep. Tanzania
Bolivia
Sudan
Indonesia 12120
Côte d'Ivoire 1 193
Madagascar 1 346
Nigeria 1 187
India 3 390
Brazil 36 709
Zaire 7 322

268
376
5153
495
351
2 380
6 780
4 006
4 381
6 247
4 817

DIMENSIONS OF NFF.D PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrighted Material

Wealth from the wild

Harvesting wild
resources (from the
top): fishing in
mangrove forest,
Viet Nam; collecting
honey, Senegal;
tapping rubber,
Thailand; gathering
mushrooms. Nepal.

F orest lands offer a wealth
o

of products other than
wood, that benefit both rural
communities and humanity as
a whole.

Three-quarters of the world's
people use folk medicines
derived largely from forest
plants and animals, while the
Worldwatch Institute estimates
that more than USS 100 000
million worth of drugs with
active ingredients developed
from the forests are sold
worldwide each year.

Meat from wild animals may
be a major source of protein
for many remote villages.
Leaves, bark and seeds
supplement diets, providing
vitamins and trace minerals,
while genes from forest plants
are used to boost agricultural
yields around the world.

Global trade in forest
products, other than wood,
runs into thousands of millions
of dollars annually. In the state
of Manipur, India, for
example, 90 percent of the
people depend on them as a
major source of income.

Animal products

By conservative estimates wild animals provide more than
three-quarters of dietary protein in Zaire. The world's
240 000 square kilometres of coastal mangrove
forests provide vital nursery, feeding and breeding
grounds for commercially valuable fish and
shellfish including, for example, nearly
90 percent of the commercial catch in the Gulf of
Mexico.

Insects arc rich in vitamins and
minerals: bee larvae contain ten times
more vitamin D than fish-liver oil. Honey
supports an important forest industry, as
well as providing a particularly nutritious
food: Indian villages are estimated to
produce more than 37 000 tonnes of it a
year. And a drug obtained from the saliva
of leeches is used worldwide in skin transplants,
and to treat rheumatism and thrombosis.

The glands of the musk deer are used to
make perfume, while the tree iguanas of
Latin America are farmed for both
their meat and their skins, which are
sold to make belts, watch bands
and shoes.

Plant products

More than 6 000 forest
plants have long been used as
natural medicines, and many
have become the basis for
modern pharmaceuticals. The
rosy periwinkle, from the
forests of Madagascar, has
revolutionized the chances of
children surviving leukemia.
Taxol, from the western yew
in northwestern American
forests, is one of the most
potent anti-cancer drugs ever
found.

The sago palm is a staple
food for more than 300 000
people in Melanesia; the
700 000 people of the Upper

Shaba area of Zaire
consume 20 tonnes of
mushrooms every year. Genes
from w ild forest species have
been used to improve wheat,
sugar, coffee and many other
crops and to protect them
from devastating outbreaks
of disease.

Exports of rattan and of
palm nuts and kernels arc
worth more than USS 2 000
million a year, and some
1.5 million people in the
Brazilian Amazon get much
of their income from
harvesting rubber and other
forest products.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMFNSIONS OF NT.ED

WEALTH FROM THE WILD

Many food crops and non-wood industrial, commercial and
pharmaceutical materials originated as products long
harvested from the wild by indigenous peoples. The
economic and social incentives for non-wood
harvesting encourage conservation and offer a
defence against the loss of biodiversity.

Animal products: food, insect products, perfumes,
fertilizers, insects, fish, mammals, reptiles,
birds, other wild animals, live animal trade

Plant products: food, vines, fungi,
grasses, other wild plants,
perfumes, fodder, fibres, horticulture,
extracts, medicines

Services: employment, range land, plant
protection, soil improvement, watershed
care, parks and reserves, ecotourism, heritage,
landscapes, pollination

Services

The value of forests in
protecting soils and
regulating water supplies
and the climate is incalculable
and the effects of their
disappearance are often
catastrophic. Wind
erosion can strip 150
tonnes of topsoil
from a single
hectare in just one
hour; water erosion
may wash away
25 000 million tonnes
worldwide every year.
Deforestation in the
Himalayas contributes to
the flooding of nearly
5 million hectares annually.
Forests and trees are a source of
fodder for livestock, particularly
where grazing is poor or
inadequate. Probably as much as
three-quarters of the nearly 3 000-
5 000 tree species in Africa are used
in this way. Domestic animals may rely on leaves, fruits and
seedpods from trees and shrubs for up to six months every year.

Forests preserved in parks and reserves provide habitats for
hundreds of thousands of species, many of them endangered. These
arc usually very beautiful, and often have great potential for
recreation and ecotourism.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AMD PRODUCE 61

Copyrighted material

WEALTH FROM THE WILD

What are forests worth?

F orests are usually worth
much more left standing
than when they are cut down.
Studies in Peru, the Brazilian
Amazon, the Philippines and
Indonesia suggest that
harvesting forest products
sustainably is at least twice as
profitable as clearing them for
timber or to provide land lor
agriculture.

A study in Peru showed that
sustainably harvesting forest
products from just I hectare of
forest could be worth US$ 422
annually, year after year.

C utting down and selling the
timber from the same hectare
would yield a one-time return
of USS I 000.

Another study in Palawan,
the Philippines, showed that
coastal fisheries could earn
local fishermen US$ 2X million
a year if forests on the island's
watershed were left intact,
thus preserving the coral reef
upon which the fisheries were
based. As it happened, the
trees were cut, the resulting
soil erosion killed the reef and
the fisheries disappeared.

People and wildlife

Wildlife conservation is
generally most effective when
local people benefit from it;
when they are hostile, there is
little chance of effective
protection. Wildlife reserves
often try to keep local people
out, denying them the chance
to make a living from the
land, while elephants, tigers
and other large animals often
trample crops or kill livestock
and people in areas adjacent
to them.

Policies and protected areas
arc increasingly being

designed to attract local
support. Quotas have been
set for hunting antelope in
Zambia's Kafue Flats
wetlands. The local people
decide how many to kill
themselves and how many to
reserve for trophy hunting
tourists at USS 500 a time:
under this regime, the
antelope, threatened by
poaching before the change
of policy, have flourished and
increased. Zimbabwe has also
introduced trophy hunting, at
high prices, and ploughs the

money back into
conservation and local
communities.

Protected areas in Papua
New Guinea are often run by
local committees, and the
people are given incentives to
exploit the forest sustainably,
such as through butterfly
farming. Game ranching also
holds promise for
conservation. In New
Zealand, some 4 500 farmers
manage forested rangeland,
yielding more than USS 26
million a year in exports.

For animal populations to flourish,
local people must benefit from
protected areas.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NF FJ)

Copyrighted material

WEALTH FROM THE WILD

Many benefits follow
when forests are
conserved:

• protection of wild
species which could
provide future crops,
medicines or
industrial raw
materials;

• prevention of
erosion, conservation
of water resources
and stabilization of
local climates;

• the safeguarding of
productive wild
resources and
encouragement of
tourism.

Trekking in Himalayan
mountain forest, Nepal
(left).

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is one of the
fastest growing areas of the
tourism industry. It is
estimated to be increasing by
some 10-15 percent a year.

Two-fifths of visitors to
Costa Rica - one of the
pioneers of ecotourism - now
come to see its forests,
landscape and wildlife.

The environment and tourists both
gain from game reserves such as
these in Latin America and Africa.

Ecotourists in South Florida
are thought to spend almost
USS 2 000 million a year and
trips to Antarctica increased
four-fold in as many years in
the early 1990s.

Ecotourism offers an
important opportunity to
earn many millions of dollars
per year from conservation.
But ecotourists can end up
damaging the very wild areas
they have come to admire.
Coral reefs around the
world have been ruined by
visitors. The lodges in one
village on the Nepalese hiker
trails fell a hectare of forest
every year, causing more than
30 tonnes of soil to be
eroded away.

Experts say that the effects
of ecotourism should be
monitored and the industry
regulated if it is to achieve its
potential for conservation.
Small-scale operations are
usually the most benign, but
only a few, like the Toledo
Ecotourism Association in
Costa Rica, are run by local
villagers.

DIMENSIONS OK Ni l I » PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copyrightetfrnaterial

Controlling pests

Black tarantula

Pests and diseases
have no regard for
national borders.
FAO* EMPRES
programme Is a
major initiative for
transboundary control
of pests.

P ests cost thousands of
millions of dollars
annually in lost agricultural
production, and at least
1 0 percent of the world's
harvest is destroyed, mainly
by rodents and insects, while
in storage. In 1970 disease
devastated one-sixth of the
United States’ maize crop.
Later that decade, Java lost
70 percent of its rice crop to
brown planthoppers, while a
1 976 outbreak of New World
scrcwworm in Texas cost
US$ 375 million. The world’s
potato farmers spend some
US$ 1 600 million annually to
combat the fungus that caused
the Irish potato famine of the
1840s. Rinderpest, a killer
disease which in the 1890s
wiped out 80-90 percent of all
cattle in sub-Saharan Africa is
now the target of a
coordinated Pan-African
eradication campaign.

Pesticides help. Their use
multiplied by a factor of 32
between 1950 and 1986, with
developing countries now-
accounting for a quarter of
the world’s pesticide use. But
inappropriate and excessive
use can cause contamination
of both food and environment
and, in some cases, damage
the health of farmers.

Pesticides also kill the natural
enemies of pests, allowing
them to multiply; meanwhile
the number of pest species
with resistance to pesticides
has increased from a handful
50 years ago to over 700 now.

Biological controls, such as
the use of pests’ natural
enemies, are useful. In West
Africa, the introduction of a
wasp has brought about a
spectacular control of the
mealybug, thereby saving
cassava, the basic food crop
for millions of Africans. In
India the seeds of the neem
tree ( Azadirachta indica ) are
used as a natural insecticide to
protect crops and stored
grain. Researchers have found
that the active compounds can
control over 200 species of
pest, including major pests
such as locusts, maiz.e borers
and rice weevils, yet do not
harm birds, mammals or
beneficial insects such as bees.

Scientists have developed
new varieties of plants, often
using genes from wild
varieties with inbuilt disease
resistance. Genes from the
wild have been used to protect
Brazil's coffee plantations,
while a Mexican wild maize
confers resistance to seven
major diseases.

Both pesticides and
biological controls can be
expensive: pests become
increasingly resistant to
chemicals, and the genetic
resistance of plants to pests
needs to be renewed regularly
by the plant breeder.

Integrated pest management
(1PM), now the basis of FAO
plant protection activities,
combines a variety of controls,
including the conservation of
existing natural enemies, crop
rotation, intercropping, and
the use of pest-resistant
varieties. Pesticides may still
continue to be used selectively
but in much smaller quantities.

Five years after I PM was
widely introduced in Indonesia,
rice yields increased by
1 3 percent, while pesticide use
dropped by 60 percent; in the
first two years alone the
Government saved US$ 1 20
million that it would have
spent subsidizing the
chemicals. In the Sudan, IPM
produced good results with a
more than 50 percent
reduction in insecticide use. In
the United States, a 1987 study
found that apple growers in
New York state and almond
growers in California who
used IPM substantially
increased their yields.

Pesticide safety

FAO keeps countries informed of
pesticides that are generally acceptable
and helps to ensure that pesticides are
property labelled and packaged, ft is also
eliciting support for the destruction of the
large stocks of hazardous pesticides that
have built up in many developing
countries. Most developing countries
have neither the resources nor the
expertise to rid themselves of these toxic
and useless chemicals. FAO puts the
quantity of obsolete pesticides in Africa
alone at 20 000-30 000 tonnes, which
will cost up to USS 150 million to destroy

PROTECT AND PRODUCE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Worldwide locust distribution

Pests threaten crops,

livestock and humans.
At least 520 insects
and mites, 150 plant
diseases and 113
weeds have become
resistant to pesticides
meant to control them.

Desert locusts (Scbistoccrta
gregaria) have swept over
Africa, the Middle East
and western Asia for
millennia. Under particularly
favourable breeding
conditions numbers can
reach plague proportions.
Often assisted by winds,
swarms of 400 million or
more insects, each one able
to eat its ow n weight in
vegetation every day, travel
great distances at bewildering
speed, and can strip entire
areas of crops.

FAO began its Locust
Control Programme in 1952,
and has been at the centre of
attempts to combat outbreaks
ever since. It runs the Desert
Locust Information Service
which provides early warning
to affected countries and
international donors.

In 1994 FAO set up the
Emergency Prevention System
for Transboundary Animal
and Plant Pests and Diseases
(EMPRES); its initial priorities
were to improve management
of desert locusts and eradicate

rinderpest worldwide. It looks
at ways to target locusts
without affecting other life,
including non-chemical means.

Severe locust
plagues In 1987-89
were mainly fought
with chemical
pesticides. Since
then, environmental
concerns have
necessitated the
development of
alternative strategies.

-too

-50

Change In pesticide use

50 100 150 200 250

300

350 400

Myanmar

Oman

♦203 (509)

♦382(357)

Islamic Rep. of Iran
Malaysia
Pakistan

-IS (1679)

-38 (1 467)
-39(1353)

-W 113 134)
-«6(5550)

♦92(25917)
♦«1 (44 721)

♦24 (5518)

Cyprus

Sweden

Finland

Romania

Egypt

•«7(11402) Hungary

Cameroon

Percentage change, selected countries. 1989-92.

Figures in brackets show total pesticide use 1992. in tonnes.

Mamation* ctaMtas an pmticite um « incaapMe. Thu cfart shows saw roesnt
tronos Tbs vdira at um wot* gnuOy and many Oevotopmg countries may lum to
ncwM pesUeite um « tody are to increase 9** agncotsM protection. Sonta

DIMENSIONS OF NEED PROTECT AND PRODUCE

CopyrightodVnaterial

Biological diversity

1.4-1.75 million
species have been
identified but
scientists believe that
there are over
13.5 million more
species. The size of
the grey drawings
indicates the number
of species known,
while the larger
shadow indicates the
total estimated

T he diversity of life on earth
is essential to the survival
of humanity. Yet it is being
lost at an unprecedented rate.
Natural habitats are being
destroyed, degraded and
depleted, resulting in the loss
of countless wild species.
Traditional crop varieties and
animal breeds are being
replaced with new ones that
are more suited to modern
agriculture.

When natural diversity is
lost, so is irreplaceable genetic
material, the essential building
blocks of the plants and
animals on which agriculture
depends. These plants and
animals are the result of
3 0U0 million years of natural
evolution - and 1 2 000 years
of domestication
and selection.
Of the
thousands
of plant
species that
can be used for food,
only 1 >-20 are of major
economic importance. In fact,
only a handful supply the
dietary energy needs of most
of the world’s population.
Since 1900, however, about
75 percent of the genetic
diversity of agricultural crops
has been lost.

In India, there will soon
only be 30-50 rice varieties
covering an area where
30 000 once flourished. Half
of the animal breeds that
existed in Europe at the start
of the present century are
now extinct, and onc-quartcr
of the livestock breeds in the
rest of the world are now
at high risk of loss. The
traditional knowledge and
skills of indigenous peoples -
who selected, bred and
cultivated such varieties over
thousands of years - are also
disappearing, often

along with the people
themselves.

The loss of genetic
resources has accelerated
with the spread of intensive
agriculture and high-yielding
crop varieties to large
parts of the developing
world, replacing the
traditional diversity ot crops
with monocultures. Yet the
varieties being lost may
contain genes that could be
used to develop even more
productive varieties or to
improve resistance to pests.
The N’Dama cattle of
West Africa, for example,
have developed tolerance,
over thousands of years, to
trypanosomiasis, which

threatens some 160 million
other domesticated
animals in Africa, costing an
estimated US$ 5 000 million
a year in meat production
alone.

Popular movements to
consone traditional crop
varieties are spreading
throughout the world. The
Seed Savers Exchange, a
network of around 1 000
farmers and gardeners in the
United States, locates and
conserves thousands of
varieties of endangered
vegetables. KENGO, a
network group in Kenya,
promotes the conservation
and use of indigenous tree
species.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE 1XMÍ.NSIONS OF NfctD |a |

BIODIVERSITY

Domesticated animals at risk

0 200 400 600 800 1 000

Europe

Asia and

Pacific

Africa

Near East

Latin America
and Caribbean

North America

1688

1501

I^H Total number of breeds:
all species

rm Number of breeds with
population data
■■ At risk of extinction

Total number of domesticated breeds of ass, buffalo, cattle,
goat, horse, pig and sheep

FAO stresses the
importance of building
the capacity of developing
countries to conserve,
develop and use diversity
sustainably as a means of
reducing hunger and
poverty. The Organization
has pioneered the concept
of Farmers’ Rights which
recognizes that farmers
and rural communities,
especially those in the
developing world, should
he rewarded - and to no
lesser extent than plant
breeders - for the
contribution they make to
the creation, conservation
and availability of genetic
resources.

DIMENSIONS OF NFF.D PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Sustainable agriculture
and rural development

The genes of wild
animals such as the
gaur (top) and Jungle
fowl (bottom) can be
MMd to “refresh” the
gene base of
livestock.

T he challenges of increasing
food production are
daunting. Despite great
agricultural advances, millions
go hungry or live under threat
of famine. Food production
will have to double between
1995 and the year 2025 if the
expected population of up to
8 500 million is to be fed
adequately.

Parallel with population
growth is the impact of
pollution and the degradation
of natural resources that
threaten to limit gains in
production and imperil
sustainable agriculture.
Achieving sustainable
agriculture and rural
development (SARD) will not
be easy. Most of the best
agricultural land is already
under cultivation. The rate of
expansion of cropland fell
from I percent a year during
the 1950s to 0.5 percent by
the 1970s: by 1990 it was'
virtually at a standstill. Per
caput water availability is also
falling rapidly. Future increases
in production depend mainly
on increasing the productivity
of existing agricultural land
and water resources.

Farmer involvement is the
key to sustainable agriculture.
Given the right incentives and
government support, farm
families can and are making
significant progress towards
managing their land and water
sustainably.

Some traditional farming
systems using low inputs have
improved yields while
safeguarding the resource base.
Indonesian rice farmers who
adopted integrated pest
management (IPM), which
reduces the need for pesticides,
soon achieved higher yields
than those who relied solely on
pesticides.

A diversity of crops or

Areas of air pollution:
emissions leading to acid rain
I Sensitive soils /
potential problem areas
I Present problem areas
(including lakes and rivers)

Areas of persistent
coastal pollution

varieties can help protect
farmers against failure. In a
single Amazon community in
Peru 168 different species of
plants are cultivated. Small-
scale potato growers in the
Andes grow up to 100 distinct
varieties, with a typical
household growing 10-12.

Agricultural systems, in
both developed and developing
countries, need to use new
approaches to increase food
supplies while protecting the
resources on which they
depend. This can be achieved
with practices that:

• fully exploit natural
processes such as recycling
nutrients, using plants that fix
their own nitrogen and

achieving a balance between
pests and predators;

• reduce the reliance on inputs
such as mineral fertilizers and
chemical pesticides;

• diversify farming systems,
making greater use of the
biological and genetic potential
of plant and animal species;

• improve the management of
natural resources;

• rotate crops or develop
agroforestry systems that help
maintain soil fertility.

The ultimate objective
should be the optimum mix of
agricultural practices, both
old and new, in order to
maximize sustainable output
within the limits of available
resources.

PROTECT AND PRODUCE I>1M> NMONS OI NFEP

In the future, growth
In food production
will depend largely on
finding ways to
increase the
productivity of
existing agricultural
land.

Old varieties represent
a valuable gene bank
that can be utilized to
create improved
crops. Potatoes, Peru
(lop) and apples,
France (bottom).

Atmospheric and coastal pollution

Essential ingredients for sustainable development

Biological Continued consena lion of genetic
resources is essential if food supplies are to be
increased. Authorities in regions rich in genetic
resources should be encouraged to conserve
wild species of animals and plants.

Physical Soil and water must be conserved to

sustain plant productivity. This requires the
introduction of land management to reduce or
halt topsoil erosion and to maintain or increase
the water-holding capacity of soil. Irrigated
agriculture needs to be overhauled where water
is wasted or crop yields are declining as a result
of soil salinity and waterlogging. Atmospheric
pollution, including acid rain, harms crops and
forest stands. Excessive use of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides poisons soils and
reduces productivity.

Social Clear property rights and land tenure
systems provide powerful incentives for
owners and tenants to use their land in a
sustainable way. Land tenure systems need
reform in countries where land distribution is
grossly unfair or where laws are inadequate
to control land use, protect forests and
safeguard rangelands. Participation must
also be encouraged by local controls over
planning and the allocation of resources.

Economic Farmers in developing countries
need fair prices for their produce and better
agricultural infrastructure, including
adequate extension services and efficient
transport for getting their food to markets.
They need incentives to conserve soil and
water resources.

DIMENSIONS Ol MID PROTECT AND PRODUCE

Copy righted*fri aterial

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

The FAO definition
of sustainable
agricultural
development Is “the
management and
conservation of the
natural resource base,
and the orientation of
technological and
Institutional change in
such a manner as to
ensure the attainment
and continued
satisfaction of human
needs for present and
future generations.
Such development...
conserves land, water,
plant and animal
genetic resources, is
environmentally non-
degrading, technically
appropriate,
economically viable
and socially
acceptable."

Agenda 21 is the action plan
adopted by leaders from 169
countries who met at the
1992 UN Conference on
Environment and
Development (UNCED) -
generally referred to as the
Earth Summit - in Rio de
Janeiro. The action plan
devotes a chapter to
sustainable agriculture and
rural development, which
lays down that “major
adjustments are needed in
agricultural, environmental
and macroeconomic policy, at
both national and
international levels, in
developed as well as
developing countries, to
create the conditions for
sustainable agriculture and
rural development.’*

Sustainable development
considerations, it says,
must be integrated with
agricultural analysis in

Agenda 21

all countries, not just
developing ones, and notes
that at present there is a
“widespread absence” of
such coherent national policy
frameworks. Governments, it
urges, should have sound
policies in place by the turn
of the century.

Agenda 21 puts priority on
maintaining and improving
the productivity of the best
lands in order to support an
expanding population. But,
at the same time, the less
good lands should be
conserved and rehabilitated
and further encroachment on
marginal land should be
avoided.

It provides detailed
proposals in 12 policy areas.
These include land reform
and encouraging people to
invest in the land by being
provided with ownership,
finance and the means to

market their produce at fair
prices. People should be
trained in how to conserve
the soil, combining the best
contributions of both modern
and traditional techniques.
There should be better
conservation of genetic
resources. The benefits of
plant breeding should be
shared between those who
provide and those who use
the raw r materials for it. And
integrated pest management
and plant nutrition should be
widely adopted.

Elements for sustainable agriculture and rural development

INTEGRATED ACTIVITIES KEY NATURAL RESOURCES KEY EXTERNAL INPUTS

Government level:
policies, instruments,
development plans, agrarian

reform, nutrition surveys, food

quality and food security, data,
monitoring, early warning
systems

Rural community level:
development of local
organizations and capacity
building for people's
participation, training, extension

Area level:

for example, coastal zones,
watersheds, river basins, agro-
ecological zones

Production unit level:
farming systems, diversification
to increase incomes, creation
of rural industries, credit
and marketing

Land:

land use planning, land
management, soil conservation,
land rehabilitation

Water

water conservation, irrigation
improvements, water database
development, water-users’
associations

Plant and animal
biological resources:
conservation of genetic
resources, development of
varieties and breeds

Trees and forests:
reduction of deforestation rates,
sustainable forest management
and wood harvesting, promotion
of non- wood forest uses and
industries, conservation of
habitats, integrating trees in
tanning systems

Pest management:
programmes and projects on
integrated pest control, control
of pesticide use

Plant nutrition:
programmes and projects for
integrated plant nutrition

Rural c
national strategies and
technology transfer for integrated
rural energy development

Consumer level:
improving nutrition and food
quality, adjusting dietary
patterns, product marketing

Fisheries:

reduction of fishing effort to
maximize production, increasing
aquaculture production,
exploitation of new species

PROTECT AND PRODUCE OIMINMONS OF -.NEED

Copyrighted material

Inequality and
Instability often go
hand in hand.

There is a narrowing
gap in terms of human
survival, but still a
widening one In some
measures of quality
of life such as
incomes and years
of schooling.

Income disparity
between the richest
20 percent and the
poorest 20 percent of
the world's
population

RaUo of income shares,
richest : poorest

CZD ■■

61:1

A family of nations:
‘Haves’ and ‘have nots’

Gaps in human development

Developing countries Gap Developed countries
A □ •

Life expectancy

Years

I960

1992

46.2

▲

63.0

69.0

•

03®

•

74.5

Adult literacy

Percentage

1970

1992

▲

[S3

•

99*

Nutritional level

Percentage of

1965

1992

▲

[M3

109

124

•

**•

134*

daily requirement

Infant mortality

Per 1 000 live births

1960

1992

149

▲

•

-•

Access to safe water

Percentage of

1975-80 A

CM3

1 30 i

100

•

-•

100

population

Years of
schooling

1980

1992

3.5

▲

(Ml

9.1

•

-•

10.0

3.9

•Eslrrute Smrcte: UMDf

T he world, as a whole, is
getting steadily wealthier.
Global income has increased
seven-fold over the past
50 years while income per
person has more than tripled.
But this wealth is poorly
distributed. By the early
1 990s, about 20 percent of
the world’s population -
most of it in the developed
world - received over
80 percent of the world’s
income, while the poorest
20 percent received only
1 .4 percent. The developed
countries consume 70 percent
of the world’s energy,

75 percent of its metals,

85 percent of its wood
and 60 percent of its food.

In the developing world,
the people spend a higher
proportion of their small
incomes on food than their

counterparts in the
industrialized countries. Food
supplies tend to he
unpredictable and nutrition
poor. Jobs arc scarce.
Investment in education,
health and sanitation is low.

In some developing countries
per caput income is falling. It
fell on average by 2.4 percent
a year in Haiti in the 1980s,
in Zaire by 1.3 percent and in
Mozambique by 1.1 percent.
Per caput food production
fell during the 1980s in at
least 58 countries: by 1990,
food availability was lower
than total calorie needs in
more than 40 developing
countries.

Some of the gaps between
rich and poor nations have
narrowed since the 1 960s,
others have grown, but life
expectancy is low and child

mortality remains high in the
pooresr countries.

Developing nations often
lack the institutions and
mechanisms to redistribute
their income. Unequal income
distribution means that the
top fifth of the population
may receive as much as
25 times the income of the
bottom fifth. Domestic
policies are often biased in
favour of urban populations:
on average, rural
communities, while still
the majority in most
developing countries, receive
less than half the educational,
health, water and sanitary
services.

Global and national
inequalities encourage
migration and can create social
unrest. An unequal world is an
unstable world.

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS Ol NEU) j a |

World trade:

Why is it important?

a Jñm'

ftl^soo

SK > j

ml A

S ome US$ 3 800 000 million
worth of goods were traded
among the world’s countries in
1 993. Ideally, trade consists of
one country selling what it is
best able to produce, and
buying what others produce
better. It creates wealth which
can be used to reduce poverty,
generate income, create
employment and develop the
economy.

Trade is generally more
effective than aid as an engine
of development. If all things
were equal, international trade
would represent developing
countries’ best means of raising
the funds necessary to meet
their peoples’ needs. But in
reality the balance of trade is
tilted against them.

Some developing countries
are becoming more
industrialized, but most of them

still bring raw materials, or
materials that have been little
processed, such as minerals,
timber and agricultural
products, to the world
marketplace. Raw materials
provide nearly 90 percent of
the export earnings of sub-
Saharan African countries.

FAO lists 47 developing
countries, 24 of them in Africa,
which depend on agricultural
exports. Many of these rely on
exporting a single crop such as
coffee, sugar, cotton or, in the
case of Madagascar, vanilla.
This can be dangerous, as
Madagascar found when it was
challenged by cheaper vanilla
coming onto the market from
Indonesia. For such countries, a
bad harvest at home can wipe
out a year’s export earnings,
while a good harvest elsewhere
may flood the market.

Marco Polo
opened the

trade routes from Europe
to China in the Middle
Ages. The Silk Road
existed long before and
was very active in Roman
times.

Many countries have set
out to diversify their
production. But most of
the foreign exchange
earned by over half of all
developing countries still
comes from just one or two
commodities.

Since 1 970, sub-Saharan
Africa and Latin America
and the Caribbean have
all seen their share of
global trade fall, while
the proportion enjoyed by
East and Southeast Asia has
grown.

Trade creates the
wealth necessary for
economic development,
creation of employment
opportunities and the
alleviation of suffering.

Share of agriculture
in world exports

Total world exports
in current USS
thousand million

1974 828

14.4 ^

percent

Share of agriculture

1978 1 276

13.6

percent

1982 1 795

11.9

percent

1986 2 055

11.2

percent

1990 3 309

9.9

percent

1993 3 371

9.7

percent

DIMENSIONS OF Nl H> BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted material

WORLD TRADE

World agricultural exports

Index. 1982-84=100
Current USS

Agricultural commodities arc
a major source of income for
most developing countries
other than those that have oil
reserves, hut prices have
tended to fall over recent
decades while those of
manufactured goods have
risen steadily. During the
1980s, recession and slow
growth in the developed
countries kept demand and
prices low.

Between I960 and 1987,
the prices of 33 commodities
monitored by the World Bank
halved. The value of a
60 kilogram sack of coffee
worth USS 310 in 1977,
had fallen to USS 143 in 1989

and was worth only USS 79
in March 1993. Between 1982
and 1992 the real cost of a
kilogram of cocoa fell by
about 60 percent, a kilogram
of cotton by 40 percent and a
kilogram of rubber by
45 percent. Although prices
improved in 1994, they
still stood below their 1980
level.

Meanwhile the prices of
manufactured products
imported by developing
countries were rising - by
25 percent between 1980
and 1988. Overall, in the
1980s, the raw materials
exported by developing
countries lost 40 percent of

Commodity prices

9 their value in relation to the

982 manufactured goods they

imponed.

Agricultural commodity
im prices arc highly unstable

d a because of fluctuations in

supply and demand,
s Competition aggravates the

situation - 62 developing
) countries, for example, vie

for a share of the world’s
coffee market. Between 1972
and 1983, coffee prices
fluctuated wildly each year -
by an average of 36 percent
above or below the trend.
Furthermore, most
commodities are processed
after leaving their country of
f origin, which therefore does

Share of agriculture in GDP, 1993*

Percentages

• 40.0 and over
▲ 20.0 - 39.9
V 10.0-19.9
O Under 10.0
No symbol: Insufficient data

*Ulna awulatto Optra usad «Ocre 1993 data
am iravaiUtXc

Boundin' of Entrai mown in grey
Source <995

Percentage share of
merchandise exports, 1993*

ti* I Over 85 percent primary commodities
I 1 50 - 85 percent primary commodities
WW 51-85 percent manufactured goods
1^1 Over 85 percent manufactured goods
i I Insufficient data

On ms map pur
oís textie fibres roods ar«9 live annuls Man/jclured poods
include m.urmnf> m) plam transport nquçnumt, futiles irO
Bottling aid the lu* ranga ol finished manufactured good*

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS Ol X£H) [|a |

WORLD TRADE

Share of agricultural production in GDP and
percentage share of merchandise exports

not benefit from the added
value that this brings.

Sri Lanka keeps less than a
quarter of the price of each
packet of its tea that is sold in
the United Kingdom
- and even less reaches the
farmer.

Monitoring world trade in
agriculture, fisheries and

forest products is one of the
prime tasks for which FAO
was established. FAO
monitors closely policy
developments in commodity
markets and provides fora
for discussions of emerging
commodity problems through
its various intergovernmental
groups.

Price indices

— Rubber
Wool

74 78 82 86 90 93 74 78 82 86 90 93 74 78 82 86 90 93

— Cassava 160 Groundnut oil 160 Beef&veaJ 160

— Maize

140 — Pa 11 " 011

tiin — Mutton &
140 lamb

.A 140

ft .

120 n 'A K

,20 ~ J

^120

\ loo \ y\ ji

100 fhJL

100

Sugar

— Soybean oil

— Pigmeat

74 78 82 86 90 93 74 78 82 86 90 93 74 78 82 86 90 93

DIM! SIMONS Ol NM D BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted 7 *! aterial

WORLD TRADE

Several major
wheat producing
countries do not
rely on it as their
main staple, but
many wheat
importing
countries do.

Rice is the staple
food of almost half
the world's
population, but very
little of the total
production is traded
on world markets.

Indices, 1982-84 = 100

Current USS

Total world wheal

Wheat export production index m
price index — —

Indices, 1982-84 « 100

180

160

\ price index

Total world nee

140

production index

120

V 100

74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90

Wheat

The cultivation of wheat dates
back about 7 000 years. It
originated in the western part
of Asia, gradually spreading
to nearly all other regions in
the world. It is not surprising,
therefore, that wheat,
together with rice, are the two
most important and common
food staples in the world.

Wheat production has
grown considerably over the
past two decades and in
recent years its global
production has reached
around 550 million tonnes.
The total wheat output of the
developing countries accounts
for over 40 percent of global
wheat production, with China
the world's largest producer.

Wheat is the most
important cereal traded on
international markets. The
total world trade in wheat
and wheat flour (in grain

Rice

Developing countries account
for about 95 percent of
production and about
80 percent of trade in rice.
Most of the rice, a staple
food for almost half the
people in the world, is
consumed in the countries
where it is produced. Only
about 3-5 percent of rice
produced is traded on the
world market.

Different countries and
regions have specific
preferences for particular
kinds of rice. Australia, the
northern part of China, the
Republic of Korea, Japan and
Italy, for example, eat
short/medium grain rice of
the Japónica type. The
preference in most parts of
Asia and Africa is for the long
grain or Indica type.

Further preferences exist
within these broad categories.
The varieties of Japónica rice
consumed in Italy, for

equivalent) is dose to
95 million tonnes, with the
developing countries
accounting for some
80 percent of imports. This is
mainly because, despite a
relatively large wheat output
in the developing world,
overall consumption outpaces
production. As populations
move from countryside to
town, there is increasing
demand for convenient foods
such as bread. The United
States ranks as the world's
largest wheat exporter,
normally contributing around
one-third of world export
volume.

Wheat is the major
commodity provided as food
aid. In 1992793, for example,
wheat accounted for just over
half of the 15 200 tonnes of
the cereal shipped as food aid
to developing countries.

example, are not acceptable
to consumers in Japan or the
Republic of Korea.

Different countries also
prefer different kinds of
processing: in Bangladesh,
people like parboiled rice
(rice that is dehusked after
being steamed); in Jordan,
the preference is for camolino
rice (rice treated with paraffin
oil), and the Senegalese
like milled white rice with
a high proportion of broken
grains.

Rice is one of the most
difficult food commodities in
w hich to trade because of
rigid consumer preferences,
the small quantities involved
and the dependence of
production on local
climatic conditions.
Fluctuations in prices on
international markets can
be large, adding to the
uncertainties of providing this
essential food.

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY 1>I\I| N.MpjNS pf NSfcty -,|

WORLD TRADE

Jute is a fibre crop which is
used mainly for sacking, but
efforts arc being made to
diversify' into other end-uses.
The principal producers of
jute arc Bangladesh, China,
India, Myanmar, Nepal and
Thailand. Despite the
significant role played by
jute in these Asian
economies, the increasing
use of synthetic substitutes
such as plastics has made
serious inroads into the
global trade.

Being a natural fibre, jute is
biodegradable and as such
“environmentally friendly”.
The principal products such
as sacks, can be re-used and,
as a result, may have a
secondary value for other
users. Despite such positive
features, the world market
for jute has remained
depressed.

Jute

In recent years, world
production of jute has been
about 3 million tonnes per
year, of which 300 000 tonnes
are traded internationally in
the form of raw fibre and
900 000 tonnes in the form of
products. The world trade in
jute products is dominated by
the following, in order of
importance: sacking, yam,
hessian and carpet backing.

In the mid-1960s about
20 percent of world jute was
processed in developed
regions. This share has now
fallen to around 5 percent.
This decline results from the
increased concentration of
jute processing industries in
the major producing and
consuming countries of Asia
coupled with a decline
in overall consumption
elsewhere because of the
spread of synthetic products.

Indices, 1982-84= 100

Outside of the major
jute producing

180 countries, the spread

of synthetic products
160 has reduced demand

Jute export H

price index 1 1

so that international
140 trade in jute is
declining.

\ 120

/ . V / 1 f \ 100

~ 7 \ V V

^ Total world jute V

production index

74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90

Fish products arc an
important source of foreign
exchange earnings in many
developing countries. One
success story is the trade in
shrimp, a particularly high-
value product.

In 1995, Thailand’s harvest
of the black tiger shrimp
(Penaeus monodon), which
accounts for more than one-
quarter of world production
of warm-w r ater shrimps,
exceeded 250 000 tonnes,
confirming the country’s
position as the top farmed-
shrimp producer. Almost half
of the United States* shrimp
imports consist of this species.
Production of black tiger
shrimps, found throughout
Asia, is growing by an
estimated 20 percent a year.

Trade in shrimp products
has doubled in the past
decade to reach 1 million
tonnes but increases in
aquaculture production have

Shrimp/shrimp products

led to instances of market
saturation, accompanied by
dramatic falls in prices.

Shrimp prices also reflect
fluctuations in consumption:
traditionally, demand is high
at Chinese New Year in Asian
countries with large Chinese
communities, while in Japan
(the world’s largest importer)
demand generally slackens in
February, the coldest month.

As shrimp cultivation has
expanded, disease, water
pollution and inadequate
quality control have all had a
major impact on production
and trade. Thailand, China,
India, Cambodia and
Bangladesh have experienced
severe financial losses, mainly
as a result of diseased stock.
The most serious decline was
reported by China in 1993,
when production fell from
220 000 to 35 000 tonnes.
Income loss was estimated at
USS 9 770 million.

Indices, 1982-84 = 100

Current USS

Total world
shrimps and prawns
production index

180

160

140

120

'l00

Shrimps and prawns 80
export price index

Shrimp cultivation is a
growing industry in
several developing
countries and a major
source of export
earnings.

76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 93

DIMENSIONS Ol NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrightectmaterial

WORLD TRADE

Effect of the Uruguay
Round on future
international food
prices

Percentage change
between 1987-89 and
2000

Minus Uruguay

value Round Total*

Baseline effect

* ♦

10 0 10 20 3

0 40

Wheat

€ 3 < I

Rice

Maize

Millet/sorghum

Other grains

■©■1 1

Fats and oils

■|e

Oil-meal proteins

Bovine meat

Pigmeat

Sheep meat

Poultry

Milk

Tot* docs not MCCtwnly •«**
ffw turn of ttn two ottocti

The actual values
shown Include tariffs
and other policy
effects and forms of
protection. The
baseline is a
projection for the year
2000 on the same
basis. The Uruguay
Round effect
demonstrates how an
adjustment in tariffs
will increase trade.

GATT and the World Trade Organization

Policies designed to protect
industry and agriculture in the
developed countries make it
hard for developing countries
to compete in the world
market. Some major
developed countries sell their
products at less than the cost
of production, doing serious
damage to non-subsidizing
countries, particularly
the developing country
farmers.

In 1993, total support
provided to agricultural
producers in OECD countries
amounted to USS 163 000
million. This gives their
farmers an advantage in
world markets, and has led to
overproduction. In 1993,
one-fifth of the European

Community' Common
Agricultural Policy budget
was spent on storing its food
surpluses. Producers in
developed countries are also
protected by tariff barriers.
These tend to rise with the
degree of processing involved
- the tariffs for metal
products and clothes, for
instance, are double those for
metal and cloth and four
times those for metal ores and
cotton. Quotas and quality-
controls also deter imports
into their markets.

Such obstacles discourage
developing countries from
exporting processed
agricultural products.
Agricultural protectionism
alone is thought to cost them
USS 100 000 million a year in
lost revenues.

The General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
signed in 1948, and the
United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), set up in 1964,
have provided fora for
negotiations on trade
liberalization with some
success. When GATT was
established, tariffs accounted
for 40 percent of the price of
imported goods, on average.
Today this has fallen to
5 percent.

FAO provided technical
support for the latest set of

GATT negotiations, the
Uruguay Round, which was
successfully completed in
April 1994 and was the first
to include agriculture
significantly. As a result of
the negotiations, GATT has
now become the World Trade
Organization (WTO), set up
to monitor and regulate
international trade, and to
oversee the implementation of
the Uruguay Round
agreements. Although the
reductions in subsidies and
trade barriers in agriculture
are small, they arc expected
to add over USS 9 000
million to the value of
developing countries’
agricultural exports by the
year 2000.

Regional trade agreements
arc increasingly important.
The European Union (EU)
has just been expanded to
15 members. The North
American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), signed
by Canada, Mexico and the
United States in 1992, will
abolish most trade barriers
between its members and is
expected to attract new
members from Latin America.
Other regional agreements
include MERCOSUR in
Latin America, CARICOM
in the Caribbean, ASEAN in
Asia and COMESA in Africa,
among others.

Agricultural trade of developing countries

Trade, 1987-89

Projected trade in 2000 (baseline)

USS thousand million

Latin America Africa Near Far

and Caribbean East East

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Food aid

Food aid can meet
immediate needs
and contribute to
development.

Food aid recipients

Million tonnes §

r / 6

Africa

' A 1

Others

1981/ 85/ 89/ 92/

82 86 90 93

Total cereal

commodities 16

provided as food aid

Million tonnes / 14

1981/ 85/ 89/ 92/

82 86 90 93

A lmost all rhe food reaching
the poorest nations from
abroad does so through
trade rather than aid. Nearly
90 percent of the cereals
imported by rhe 88 low-income
food-deficit countries (LlFDCs)
in the developing world and in
Central and Eastern Europe in
1 993 were bought on the open
market.

Food aid accounts for some
5 percent of rhe total aid of
US$ 2 600 million given by the
Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD) in 1993. Minimum
food aid commitments have
been established and monitored
by the International Wheat
Council through a series of
Food Aid Conventions since
1967. Food aid may be given
in kind, as a grant or on
concessional terms, or in cash.

to fund food imports.
Triangular transactions, where
the donor buys food from one
developing country to give to
another, help both producing
and consuming nations, hut
only account for a small
proportion of the total.

The Committee on Food Aid
Policies and Programmes,
elected by FAO Council and
the UN's Economic and Social
Council, coordinates food aid
within the UN system. It is
also the governing body of the
World Food Programme
(WFP), which is responsible
for about a quarter of all food
aid given every year (the rest
coming directly from
governments and aid agencies).
Standby food aid pledges are
managed by the International
Emergency Food Reserve
(IF.FR), set up by a special

session of the UN General
Assembly.

Food aid may he given in
response to crises caused by
bad harvests, war or natural
disasters (emergency food aid)
or to boost development
(programme or project food
aid), for example, by providing
food for work in support of
projects for reforestation or
soil conservation.

If poorly designed, food aid
can create dependence in
recipient countries, undercut
domestic food production and
nurture tastes for imported
foods. But we II -designed
programmes and infrastructural
improvements - which reach
those most in need, take local
eating habits into account and
promote local agricultural
production - can be an
important tool in development.

Total cereal imports
of low-income food- — —
deficit countries 30

Million tonnes

_ 60

Commercial 2 o

. » -.^i 0

1981/ 85/ 89/ 92 /

82 86 90 93

1982 85 88 91 93

WFP emergency
operations

US$ million

Man-made

disasters

Drought/crop
failures
Sudden
natural
disasters

DIMENSIONS OF NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighicê’material

Beating the debt burden

External debt total of
developing countries

US$ thousand million
1600

1 200

800

400

, 0

1970 75 80 85 90 93

Debt service of
developing countries

USS thousand million
160

120

1970 75 80 85 90 93

External debt total as
a percentage of

developing countries'
GNP 40

1970 75 80 85 90 93

External debt total as
a percentage of
developing countries'
foreign exchange
earnings 200

150

100

— 1 1... 0

1970 75 80 85 90 93

External debt total as a percentage of
foreign exchange earnings

1980 1987 1993

Sourer. Worid&tnk

I n 1994, the developing
countries as a whole owed an
estimated US$ 1 800 000
million to hanks, governments
and multilateral institutions in
the industrialized countries -
the equivalent of half their
entire annual trade. Servicing
these huge debts diverts funds
from urgently needed social
and economic development.

The debt crisis dates from
the oil price rises of the early
1970s. Commercial banks,
flooded with money from the
oil-exporting nations, found
eager borrowers in developing
countries. A major attraction
for many of them was the low,
often negative, interest rates. In
theory the loans were to fund
projects which would generate
enough money to repay them;
in practice this often failed to

happen. In April 1982, as
interest rates soared, Mexico
said that it could no longer pay-
even the interest on its debt.
Other countries followed.

As the crisis grew in the
1980s, debtor nations turned
to the I Ml ; and World Bank
for help. These institutions
made their help conditional on
stringent structural adjustment
programmes, which often
included devaluation and cuts
in public spending. These hit
the poorest hardest.

The world’s largest debtor is
the United States, but because
of its developed economy and
rich resources, it has little
problem servicing its debt and
continuing to attract
investment. Developing
countries are far less well
placed, spending about

one-fifth of all their export
earnings for debt servicing. In
1994 the debt of sub-Saharan
Africa (excluding South Africa)
was 10 percent higher than its
annual output. Every year the
region spends four times more
on servicing its debt than it
does on health and education
combined. Central and Eastern
European countries face
similar dilemmas.

Over the past ten years,
about 80 percent of the debts
owed by the developing
countries to commercial banks
have been renegotiated on
more favourable terms. This
restructuring and rescheduling
(lowering debt service costs by
spreading the debt over a
longer period of time) has
eased the burden of the most
indebted continent, Latin

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY 1)1 Ml Nn|< )NS Of NEED

Copyrighted material

America. Some countries have
had parr of their debt forgiven.

Debt swaps - by which
foreign investors write off part
of a country’s debt in
exchange for local currency
which they invest within the
debtor nation - provide
another mechanism. A
refinement - debt-for-nature
swaps - allows international
environmental groups to buy

part of a developing country’s

debt in exchange for
government investment in
conservation: half of
Madagascar's USS 100 million
commercial bank debt has
been written off in this way.
But with a value by 1995 of
less than US$ 750 million,
these are unlikely to relieve
much of the developing
world’s debt burden.

Heavily indebted countries

Somalia

Present value of debt
service (PV) compared
with export of goods and
all services (XGS), _ ,

1991-93 average

Nicaragua

As external debt has to be paid in foreign exchange the
relative difference between the present value of debt
service (PV) and the export of goods and all services
(XGS) is Important. The World Bank regards a PV/XGS
ratio In excess of 2.2:1 as one of the Indicators of severe
indebtedness.

All countries listed here have a PV/XGS ratio greater than
2.2:1. For example. Mozambique has a ratio of 11:1.

Mozambique
Guinea-Bissau

Sao Tome and Principe
\ United Republic of Tanzania. Uganda

Zambia. Myanmar. Cote d'Ivoire
Peru, Argentina. Guyana
^ Burundi, Ethiopia

Ecuador. Bolivia. Congo Equatorial Guinea. Niger, Mauritania. Brazil. Rwanda. Syrian Arab Republic
Liberia. Poland. Uruguay. Yemen, Panama, Bulgaria, Honduras, Mali, Cameroon
Nigeria. Central African Republic, Angola, Guinea. Kenya, Ghana. Laos, Morocco

DIMENSIONS OF NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted Vnaterial

The challenge
of food production

Between 1 950 and
1980 food production
in developing
countries grew at an
average of 3 percent
a year, a rate that
exceeded that of
population growth.
This unparalleled
increase, largely due
to the adoption of
new high-yielding
varieties, bought time
for the development of
further solutions to
world food problems.

U ntil the second halt of this
century, agricultural
research focused largely on the
needs of industrialized
countries; where it reached the
developing countries, it was
directed for the most parr
towards crops that were
important to the developed
world. After the Second World
War - and particularly after
the food crisis of the 1 960s -
the focus began to change.
International research centres
were founded and local
scientists trained. Sub-Saharan
Africa now has four times
more scientists than it did in
1961, although expenditure on
research has fallen.

Research in Mexico and the
Philippines in the 1950s and
1960s led to the development
of the high-yielding varieties of
wheat and rice that launched
the Green Revolution. Between
1 950 and 1 980, production of
food in the developing world
rose by an average of
3 percent a year, outstripping

30 000

Agricultural resources

Agricultural research personnel (full-time equivalents)

Developing countries: 0 10 000 20 000

Sub-Saharan Africa
North Africa and West Asia
China

Rest of Asia and Pacific
Latin America and Caribbean y

Developed countries

6.8

Annual average growth rate
(percent), 1961-85 to 1981-85

— 82

— 6.3

EZ3 1961-6!

m iQ71 - 7 *

^ 6.3

M 1981-8!

Agricultural research expenditures (USS million. PPP*)

Developing countries: 0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000

Sub-Saharan Africa

_ 47

Annual average growth rate
(percent), 1961-65 to 1981-85

North Africa and West Asia

6.6

China

6.5

□ 1961-65

6.7

H 1971-75

Latin America and Caribbean

5.8

■1 1981-85

’Pwtftuuig ww*f panto» Sourer Wons fWtouna« MX M-HS

population growth. India's
wheat production trebled
between 1967 and 1982; rice
production in the Philippines
doubled between I960 and
1980. Today, high-yielding
varieties cover half the
world's wheatlands and most
of its rice paddies. The extra
rice produced, alone, feeds
700 million people.

The success of the first high-
yielding varieties depended on
the availability of water,
chemical fertilizers and
pesticides and on the use of
machinen’ - favouring
prosperous farmers and those
with access to water and
transport. The revolution
was mostly confined to Asia
and parts of Latin America,
but Africa was hardly
touched.

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Dl.VU NMONS Of NfcLD

THE CHALLENGE OF FOOD PRODUCTION

New high-yielding varieties of staple
crops (rice, main picture, and barley,
above) can help to provide food
security for increasing populations.

As each new variety usually
lasted for only three to four
years before adaptation of
pests and diseases caused its
resistance to break down,
scientists had to keep breeding
new strains. Over 1 000 new
varieties of rice have been
launched since 1966.

There is now a new
concentration on development
of crops to suit less favourable
soils and climates: new
varieties of wheat which will
grow in drought-prone climates
are being developed as are
strains of rice suited to the acid
soils of Latin America's
savannahs and the poor
lowland soils of South and
Southeast Asia. A hybrid rice
developed in China has raised
hopes of a new miracle rice
which will help to boost
harvests by the 74 percent that
will be needed by 2020. Such
breakthroughs arc urgently
needed: rice yields in Asia seem
to have levelled out even
though the population
continues to increase.

Meanwhile other
international research centres,
set up in the 1960s and 1970s,
have focused on other crops.
Recent successes include new
strains of faba bean - the
“poor man’s food” - which
have transformed Lgypt from
an importer to an exporter of
the crop; a sweet sorghum,
developed in China, which is
used as animal feed and for the
production of alcohol for fuel;
high-yielding varieties of
cassava - Africa’s most widely
grown staple food - which
doubled yields in the 1980s
and are set to do so again; and
a hybrid pigeon pea which
offers the hope of a “green
revolution” in pulses.

Research has also improved

methods of growing crops,
such as the discovery of ways
of applying fertilizer more
efficiently to Chinese cabbage
crops.

In all this, scientists are
increasingly aware that
progress depends on listening
to the farmers and drawing on
their own knowledge and
experience.

Future food security
depends on high-
yielding varieties of
staple foods.

Changing focus of agricultural
research and development

Past focus
CROPS

Non-food and cash crops

Large-scale producers
Prime land

Increased productivity
Higher-yielding cultivare
Mechanization
Monocultures
Irrigation
Mineral fertilizers
Chemical pesticides
Limited number of crops

LIVESTOCK

Cattle

Large-scale producers
Traditional pastures
Capital-intensive production

FISH

Commercial off-shore fisheries

Increased production

Development of boats and gear

TREES

Single species plantations
Industrial forestry

Recent additional emphasis

Upgrading subsistence food
crops

Small-scale producers
Marginal land
Sustainable production
Stress-tolerant cultivare
Animal traction
Intercropping
Ram-fed agriculture
Nutrient recycling
Integrated pest management
Crop diversification

Small ruminants and other
small livestock/pouttry species
Small-scale producers
Improved dryland pastures
Extensive production
Improved feed quantity and
quality

In-shore, inland artisanal
fisheries, aquaculture
Replenishment of stock
Increased fishing efficiency
Reduced post-harvest losses
Improved monitoring of stocks
Enhancement of marine
environment

Alternative energy propulsion
Small-scale fishing
technologies

Multipurpose tree crops

Community forestry/

agroforestry

Women in forestry

Non-timber forest products

Trees for watershed

management

Trees for environmental

improvement

Management of protected

areas

DIMENSIONS OF NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted material

THE CHALLENGE OF FOOD PRODUCTION

Areas of genetic diversity of cultivated plant

jlSNÁRj*

USD* -

« i ICARDA]

IciatI »

ícípT »

• C6IAR centres

i i Areas of genetic
diversity of
cultivated plants

WARPAl» « fÜTAl

ICRAF

ÎLBI:

CIAT international Centre of Tropical
Agriculture, Cali, Colombia

• Founded 1967

• Conducts research in germplasm
development in beans, cassava, tropical
forages and rice for Latin America, and
in resource management of humid
agro-ecosystems In tropical America

CIFOR Centre for International Forestry
Research, Jakarta. Indonesia

• Founded 1993

• Undertakes research in forest
systems and forestry and promotes the
adoption of improved technologies and
management practices, to increase
well-being in developing countries,
particularly the tropics

CIMMYT International Centre for
Improvement of Wheat and Maize.
Lisboa. Mexico

• Founded 1966

• Focuses on increasing the
productivity of resources committed to
wheat and maize through agricultural
research and in partnership with
national research systems

CIP International Potato Centre, Lima.
Peru

• Founded 1970

• Undertakes coordinated,
multidisciplinary research programmes
on potato and sweet potato and
worldwide collaborative research and
training

ICARDA International Centre for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas,
Aleppo, Syria

• Founded 1975

• Works towards increased and
sustainable productivity of winter

ram-fed agricultural systems in a harsh
and variable environment; addressing
issues such as soil degradation and
water use efficiency

ICLARM International Centre for Living
Aquatic Resources Management,

Manila. Philippines

• Founded 1977

• Aims to improve the production and
management of aquatic resources of
low-income users in developing
countries through international research
and related activities

ICRAF International Centre for Research
in Agroforestry. Nairobi, Kenya

• Founded 1977

• Focuses on mitigating tropical
deforestation, land depletion and rural
poverty through improved agroforestry
systems

Improved varieties of cereals

Research and
development
has produced hardier
plants with shorter
growing times:
barley (right);
wheat (far right, top);
rice (far right,
bottom).

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY PIMI NSlON* OF NfctP . |a |

THE CHALLENGE OF FOOD PRODUCTION

ind CGIAR research centres

ICRISAT Internationa] Crops Research
Institute tor the Semi-Arid Tropics.
Andhra Pradesh. India

• Founded 1972

• Conducts research into crops such as
sorghum, finger millet, pearl millet,
chick-pea and groundnut for enhanced
sustainable food production in the harsh
conditions of the semi-arid tropics

IFPRI International Food Policy Research
Institute, Washington, D.C., United States

• Founded 1975

• Identifies and analyses policies lor the
food needs of developing countries,
particularly the poorest groups. Issues
addressed include food production and
consumption, land use, trade and
macro-economic conditions

1 1 Ml International Irrigation Management
Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka

• Founded 1984

• Aims to strengthen the development,
dissemination and adoption of lasting
improvements in irrigated agriculture in
developing countries

IITA International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture. Ibadan, Nigeria

• Founded 1967

• Conducts research and outreach
activities on crops such as maize,
cassava, plantain, soybean and yam. for
sustainable, increased food production
in the humid and sub-humid tropics

ILRI International Livestock Research
Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

• Founded 1995

• Incorporates some programmes from
the former International Livestock
Centre for Africa and the International

Laboratory for Research on Animal
Diseases. Has global responsibilities for
strategic livestock research in genetics,
physiology, nutrition and health

IPGRI International Plant Genetic
Resources Institute (successor to the
International Board for Plant Genetic
Resources. IBPGR). Rome, Italy

• Founded 1974

• Strengthens the conservation and use
of plant genetic resources worldwide,
with particular emphasis on developing
countries, by research, training and
information activities

IRRI International Rice Research Institute,
Manila. Philippines

• Founded 1960

• Generates and spreads rice-related
knowledge and technology of
environmental, social and economic
benefit and helps enhance national rice
research

ISNAR International Service for National
Agricultural Research, The Hague,
Netherlands

• Founded 1979

• Helps developing countries bring about
sustained improvements in the
performance of their national agricultural
research systems and organizations

WARDA West Africa Rice Development
Association, Bouaké. Côte d'Ivoire

• Founded 1970

• Conducts and promotes wide-ranging
rice research to improve the technical
and economic options available to
smallholder farm families m the Sahel,
upland swamp areas and mangrove
swamp environments

The agricultural research network

T he Consultative Group on
International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) was set up
in 1971. It coordinates a
global network of 16
international centres - 13 of
them in the developing world
- and national centres. It
promotes research on food
production and natural
resources management and
mobilizes donor support.

The CGIAR centres both
develop new crop varieties
and conserve the genetic
resources which provide the
raw material for research.
They arc situated in, or near,
most of the richest regions of
biological diversity where
crops originated in the wild.
They house the world's

largest ex situ collections of
plant generic resources: the
International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) in the
Philippines, for instance,
conserves over 86 000 rice
varieties and wild species.

Such collections play an
important part in protecting
food supplies: a Turkish
variety of wheat, collected in
1 948 and ignored for many
years, has recently been found
to carry genes resistant to a
whole array of diseases which
threaten modem crops.

When war disrupts
agriculture and farmers must
cat their seeds to survive,
indigenous varieties can
disappear. In 1986 the IRRI
reintroduced rice strains to

Cambodia which had been lost
during the civil war, while the
CGIAR Seeds of Hope
programme is replicating seeds
in a hid to restore Rwanda's
agriculture and genetic diversity.

C'GlAR's best known work
remains the development of
new varieties of crops. It is
breeding strains suited to poor
farmers, who cannot afford
heavy chemical inputs, and
which will tolerate harsh
conditions. Some centres
concentrate on particular crop
species, while the International
Livestock Research Institute in
Nairobi, Kenya, focuses on
farm animals. Other centres
are devoted to fisheries,
forestry, food policy, irrigation
and dryland management.

Farmers in Rwanda
normally keep seed
from one harvest to
plant in the following
season. Civil war
disrupted this routine
and by autumn 1994
some 850 000 families
needed seed. FA0
coordinated a
USS 18.4 million
programme that
distributed bean,
maize and other seed

to help restore
Rwandan agriculture.

DIMENSIONS Ol Nl ID BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copy righteeffn aterial

This gene bank in
Ethiopia stores seeds
of hundreds of wild
varieties of crops at
sub-zero temperatures
for up to 50 years.
Every five years the
collection is tested for
germination ability.

Crops need new
protection every
15 years because
pests and diseases
develop around their
existing defences.
The only effective
way to confer it is
to interbreed them
with other strains,
often wild ones.

Biotechnology

B iotechnology can be

defined as the use of living
organisms to make or modify
products, to improve plants or
animals, or to develop micro-
organisms for specific uses. It
has been used since people
first added yeast to bread or
saved the seed from the pick
of their crops for next year’s
sowing.

Advances in molecular
biology have transformed
biotechnology in recent years.
Whereas in the past, crop
improvement depended on
selective breeding within
species, developments in
genetic engineering now make
it possible to introduce genes
from one species to another,
producing “transgenic”
varieties. Tissue culture,
through which plants can be
cloned from a single cell, has
speeded up the process of
making new varieties available.

Tlie first successful
experiment in gene
manipulation took place in

1986. By 1990, some

USS 1 1 000 million a year
was being spent on research
and development - two-thirds
of it by companies in the
private sector. Thar year, the
biotechnology industry in the
United States produced some
US$ 2 000 million worth of
products.

So far research has
concentrated on medicine
and pharmacy, but the
potential for agriculture is
immense. By the mid-1990s,
some 50 plant species had
been biotechnically altered -
including rice, wheat, potato,
soybean and alfalfa.

Resistance to pests can be
bred in this way, cutting the
farmer’s dependence on
chemicals. Scientists are also
using gene manipulation to
produce quicker-growing

fish and cheaper, more
effective vaccines against
livestock diseases. Tissue
culture has been used to
boost the productivity of oil
palm and eucalyptus
plantations.

Biotechnology has tended to
favour the industrialized
world, where most of the
research is concentrated.
Facilities are being set up in
most developing countries,
but progress is hindered by a
lack of money and trained
people. Fven though these
countries provide much of the
genetic raw material used,
their access to biotechnology
is blocked by patents and
other measures taken by
companies in the developed
world to protect their
investment in research and
development.

Developing countries are
concerned that substances
synthesized in the laboratory
or produced by transgenic
crops may undercut such
traditional exports as vanilla,
pyrethrum, rubber and
coconut oil. Biotechnology
may also present
environmental risks. Cloned
varieties could erode genetic
diversity. Genes from
transgenic crops could spread
to wild relatives. As yet no
satisfactory international
standards exist for biosafety
or the patenting of living
organisms and generic
materials. There arc plans,
however, to add a
biotechnology protocol to
the United Nations
Convention on Biological
Diversity, which was agreed
following the 1992 UN
Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED) -
generally referred to as the
Earth Summit - in Rio de
Janeiro.

Gene banks ranked by size of
collection

(excludes CGIAR centres)

9 National Research Centre of
Genetic Resources and
Biotechnology. Brasilia, Brazil

10 Institute of Crop Sciences.

Braunschweig. Germany

1 1 Plant Breeding and Acclimatization
Institute. Radzikow, Poland

12 Plant Genetic Resources Centre.

Addis Ababa. Ethiopia

KA BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted materia!

BIOTECHNOLOGY

The world’s major national plant gene banks

1 Institute of Crop 2
Germplasm Resources,
Beijing, China

2 N.l. Vavilov Research
Institute of Plant
Industry.

St Petersburg.

Russian Federation

3 National Seed Storage Laboratory.
Colorado, United States

4 National Bureau of Plant Genetic 1
Resources. New Delhi, India

5 National Small Grain Collection,
Idaho, United States

6 Plant Gene Resources of Canada.
Ottawa, Canada

7 Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop
Research, Gatersleben. Germany

8 Department of Horticulture and Fruit
Breeding, University of Agricultural
Science, Knstianstad, Sweden

Careful maintenance of
the earth's genetic
resources is vital.
Genes provide the raw
materials for
development of new
pharmaceutical,
agricultural and
industrial products
through biotechnology.

13 14

1 3 Institute ot Germplasm. Bari. Italy 17 Jolin Innés Centre, Norwich.

United Kingdom

14 Institute for Agrobotany. Tapfoszele,

Hungary 18 National Plant Genetic

Resources Laboratory,

1 5 Department of Genetic Resources. Laguna. Philippines

National Institute of Agrobiological

Resources. Tsukuba, Japan 1 9 Institute of Agroecology and

Biotechnology, Kiev, Ukraine

16 National Institute for Forestry and

Agricultural Research, San Rafael. 20 Australian Winter Cereals Collection,
Mexico Tamworth, Australia

Biotechnology has already developed:

Potato plants resistant to disease: to
promote growth and decrease risk ot
epidemics ttar left).

Barley with accelerated growth rates:
to increase agricultural production
(top. middle left).

Onions mat are slower to rot or sprout
after cropping: to increase the shelf-
llte and reduce losses in quantity and
quality (bottom, middle left).

Perennial maize

In Mexico in the late 1970s two wild
ancestors of maize were found that
have been called the botanical find of
the century. They can confer
resistance to seven of the domestic
crop's major diseases and can tum it
into a perennial crop, allowing it to be
harvested every year without
resowing (left).

Modem biotechnology
is based on genetic
engineering, by which
the DNA in the nucleus
of cells can be
modified to produce
new varieties.

DIMENSIONS Ol NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted material

Biotechnology
protects biodiversity
by assisting
conservation of plant
and animal genetic
resources through:

• new methods for
collecting and sorting
genetic material

• detection and
elimination of disease in
gene bank collections

• Identification of useful
genes

• improved techniques
for long-term storage

• safer and more
efficient distribution of
germplasm to users.

New crop varieties
can be developed more
quickly through
genetic engineering
than through the
traditional method of
cross-pollinabon.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Self-cloning seeds

Some 300 species of plants
reproduce ascxually.

Scientists arc working on
transferring this “apomixis”
to crops. Seed resulting
from normal reproduction
combines genes from both
parents and so grows into a
plant with its own unique
genetic make-up; but seed
from an apomictic plant
produces an exact genetic
replica of its parent. So new
varieties, designed for specific

environments, could be
produced much more quickly
than before, and farmers
would be able to gather their
own seed. Apomictic maize is
expected in 1997, but it could
be ten years before the first
crops reach the fields. Some
seed companies view
apomictic crops as a threat to
their sales, while some
environmentalists fear their
possible effect on genetic
diversity.

A weapon against cattle plague

Most of the agricultural
applications of biotechnology
to date have related to animal
production and health.
Gcnctically-cnginccrcd
vaccines offer a weapon
against such scourges as
rinderpest, which killed
2 million cattle in Africa in
the early 1980s and caused
indirect losses to national
economics of some
USS 1 000 million. Such

diseases force herders to run
resistant, but low-yielding,
breeds. If they could be
eradicated, it would be
possible to crossbreed with
high-yielding European breeds
and so improve production.
An Ethiopian scientist,
working in the United States,
has now developed a
genetically-engineered
vaccine against rinderpest,
which uses a virus to confer
immunity. Unlike the previous
vaccine, the new vaccine is
unaffected by heat,
inexpensive, virtually
indestructible and produces
antibodies that can easily be
distinguished from those
produced by the disease - a
characteristic useful for
monitoring protection against
infection. Tailored genetically
engineered vaccines also exist
for other livestock diseases,
including pig scours and
chicken bursal disease.

Vine-fresh

The Flavr Savr tomato, the
first bio-cnginccrcd food to
reach the world’s markets,
went on sale in the United
States in 1994.

Biotechnologists have given
the tomato an extra gene,
which prevents it softening
soon after it is ripe. The main
benefit, according to them, is
in the improved taste.

Traditional tomatoes have to
be picked while they are still
green to prevent them rotting

Nitrogen-

Rice needs 1 kilogram of
nitrogen to produce
15-20 kilograms of grain, but
only takes up one-third to
one-half of any chemical
fertilizer applied. Leguminous
plants such as peas and beans
produce their own fertilizer,
through the rhizobia bacteria
in their root nodules, w hich
fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere. Biotcchnologists
arc working on transferring

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS Ol NEED

BIOTECHNOLOGY

tomatoes

before they reach the
customer. The new variety,
however, can be left to ripen
on the vine and because of
this it retains its
“homegrown” taste. The
Flavr Savr tomato is the first
food to benefit from the
United States Government’s
ruling, in 1992, which
stated that food derived
from gene-altered plants is
not required to undergo any
special tests.

fixing rice

this characteristic to rice
plants, either by turning them
into legumes or encouraging
nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the
soil to move into their root
cells. This could save poor
farmers large sums of money,
and transform yields in such
regions as Southeast Asia,
where an area larger than
Sweden and Norway has
soils too poor to sustain
high-yielding rice varieties.

Biotechnology offers scientists
new methods for conserving
genetic diversity, particularly
useful for plants which are
sterile or have poor
germination rates and whose
seeds do not store well. Tissue
culture makes it possible to
store cells, as opposed to
seeds or plants.
Cryopreservation - storage at
very low temperatures -
freezes cell development and
has been used successfully for

cassava, coffee, banana and
sugar canc gcrmplasm.

These methods require less
space than preserving cuttings
in vitro or in field collections,
w'hich are vulnerable to pests,
disease and disasters.
Biotechnology also makes it
possible to detect and
eliminate diseases in gene
bank collections and
offers more efficient ways
of distributing gcrmplasm
to users.

Eradicating the screwworm

The New World screwworm
fly’s scientific name,
C.ochliontyia hominivorax,
describes its ability to “devour
humans”, but its main menace
is to livestock. It lays up to
400 eggs in the open wounds
of warm-blooded creatures,
including people: the maggots
then cat into the living flesh.

It used to cause losses in the
United States alone of over
USS 100 million a year.

The New World screwworm
has now been eradicated from
the United States and Mexico
using biotechnology. The larvae
of the flies are sterilized. When
mature, ten sterile males are
released for every unsterilized
one thought to be in the area:
they mate with females which
produce no offspring. As a
result the population is
gradually reduced. The last
screwworm case in the United
States was reported in 1982,
the last in Mexico in 1990.

In 1989 the pest spread,
probably carried by imported
animals, to Africa w’hen there
was an outbreak in the Libyan
Arab Jamahiriya. FAO
organized a campaign flying
sterile insects from a “flv
factory” in Mexico. Within
two years the fly had been
successfully eradicated using
this sterile insect technique
(SIT) and a potential disaster
had been avoided.

Biotechnology in
the developing world
is hampered by:

• inadequate funding/
lack of human resources

• restricted information

• poor higher education

• weak links between
universities and research
institutions

• lack of appropriate
legal regimes

• little private sector
involvement.

However, many countnes
in the developing world
have considerable
potential for
biotechnology because
of their wealth
of biodiversity.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

mmmm

ARTEMIS

draws upon satellite
data to forecast crop
production as well as
conditions that might
favour the buildup of
locusts.

The view from space:
Building models of the world

R emote sensing involves
the collection and
interpretation of information
about something with which
the sensor has no physical
contact. Once simply a matter
of climbing a hill and
observing the lay of the land,
it has evolved through
black-and-white aerial
photography into a complex
process, using imaging radar,
thermal scanning and
satellites.

Modern remote sensing is
based on picking up the
electromagnetic energy emitted
or reflected into space by
different features on the earth's
surface. This can provide
information on geological
structures, surface water, land
use, soil conditions, vegetation,
the oceans and a wide range of
other factors relevant to
agricultural and natural
resource planning.

F AO’s comprehensive
assessment of the world’s
forest resources, published in
1 995, drew upon remote
sensing data and other
national statistics. The
Organization is now working
on a land cover database for
Africa. Such activities form
part of the Global
F.nvironment Monitoring
System (GF.MS), a
worldwide collective effort
coordinated by the United
Nations Environment
Programme.

Two kinds of satellites are
used for studying natural
resources. Earth resources
satellites, such as the United
States’ Landsat, France’s SPOT
and Japan’s MOS, provide the
detailed resolution (between
10 and 80 metres) required for
thematic mapping of such
things as land cover or
erosion. FAO has drawn on
data from earth resources

satellites for thematic-
mapping projects in over 70
countries.

Environmental satellites,
such as Europe’s Meteosar or
the United States’ NOAA and
AVHRR, offer more frequent
but less detailed pictures of
areas as large as countries or
continents. FAO has used them
to monitor rainfall and
vegetation in Africa and the
Near Fast. This information is
processed by the computer
system ARTEMIS (the Africa
Real Time Environmental
Monitoring Information
System) and used to predict
harvests, drought, locust
swarms and food aid
requirements.

Information from ARTEMIS
is used by FAO’s Global
Information and Early

Warning System (GIF.WS)
and its Desert Locust Plague
Prevention Group.

Remote sensing satellites,
900 kilometres up in space,
enable scientists to monitor the
conditions for crop production
or which might encourage
desert locusts to breed in large
numbers. Since 1992 early
warning of food crises and
natural disasters has been
transmitted to regional
processing centres in Kenya,
Ghana and Zimbabwe via the
satellite telecommunications
system DIANA (the Direct
Information Access Network
for Africa).

OLIVIA, a satellite
environmental monitoring
programme for Asia and the
Pacific, is currently being
developed.

911

BUILDINQ THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIM! NSlONS l)> NULL)

The new technologies
ot remote sensing and
Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) make It
possible to gather,
integrate and analyse
vast bodies of data
that can then be used
to tackle complex
environmental
problems.

Remote sensors record
and monitor the earth's
surface by measuring
the various emissions
or reflections of
electromagnetic energy
from different types of
vegetation, soils and
other features.

Remote sensing

This data is then colour
coded to produce an
image (left). Here red
represents forest,
blue/green, agricultural
land, and purple, rocky
outcrops

The image is then
verified by ground
sampling (far left):
olive groves (top),
high land (middle),
pasture (bottom).

DIMENSIONS OF NEED BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copyrighted Material

R esource use planning
depends on correlating a
vast quantity of data. For
instance, a planner trying to
locate suitable sites for
growing a particular crop
must combine information
about soils, topography,
rainfall, land tenure, transport,
infrastructure, labour
availability and distance
from markets. This involves
reconciling maps of different
scales and types with tables of
statistics and written
information.

Until the early 1980s, this
was a laborious process,
achieved by overlaying
transparent maps on light
tables. Such manual
integration of different soil

maps used to prepare
F AO's Soil Map of the World,
for instance, took an
estimated 1 50 person-years of
work.

Introduction of the
(Geographic Information System
(GIS) has transformed the
situation. Once the data, often
derived from remote sensing,
have been entered into the
computer system, they can lx*
combined with other data to
provide a wide range of
outputs, including three-
dimensional views, maps and
tables. It is even possible to
animate events. GIS can
also be used to model the effect
of a specific process over a
period of time for a particular
scenario.

FAO is harnessing GIS to
help planners in the developing
world make a wide range of
decisions. It has been used, for
example, to identify areas in
Africa with potential for
different kinds of irrigation, to
assess the suitability of land
for forestry and to map
Kenya’s agro-ecological zones.
GIS helped Costa Rica to
pinpoint the best sites for
aquaculture in the Gulf of
Nicoya.

GIS can also be a tool for
the conservation of genetic
resources. When the
characteristics of places where
samples have been found in the
past are merged with maps of
unexplored areas, GIS can give
collectors an idea of new

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS OF JSEEp . j a |

THE VIEW FROM SPACE

locations to search for
gcrmplasm. It can also provide
an inventory of the species,
characteristics and
environmental conditions of a
given area as an aid to in situ
conservation.

In 1987, the former
International Laboratory for
Research on Animal Diseases
used GRID, a GIS developed

by UNEP, to investigate the
environmental factors which
limit the range of East Coast
Fever, a tick-borne disease
which kills many cattle in
Africa. Data on climate,
vegetation and cattle range
were combined to identify
high-risk areas where the
disease might spread if
infected cattle were introduced.

GIS data on the current
incidence and distribution of
tsetse fly in Africa arc used to
assess, among other things,
where cattle can be safely
kept or where they might
require protection.

The top map shows the
present distribution of the
palpalis group. This is a
riverine species of tsetse fly
which congregates in

humid and sub-humid
zones.

The bottom map shows
cattle distribution
superimposed on tsetse
infested areas, thus giving an
approximate picture of the
current encroachment of the
tsetse fly on grazing areas. It
suggests that around

10 percent of the
subcontinent’s cattle are
being kept within the
tsetse-infested area. The
dots on the periphery of
the red area represent
cattle distribution in the
tsetse-free drylands.

GIS is used to identify
high-risk areas that
are then targeted in
cattle vaccination
programmes.

Tsetse fly in Africa

Tord and Kalondo tsetse distribution map

Idrlttl

Two of many electronic
maps produced by FAO
using GIS for
environmental
management and
planning.

A GIS integrates various
types and styles of data
which have been collected
using a number of different
systems. For example, a
user could overlay data
about climate, crops and
population to establish
optimum use of agricultural
land for food production.

DIMI NMO\S Ol MID BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copy rightedVn aterial

Transfer of technology

Some technology
transfer opportunities:

LAND/WATER

• assessment of agro*
ecological potential

• sustainable resource
management

• improved water
management
technologies

CROPS/LIVESTOCK

• seed/fertilizer
production and
distribution

• Integrated pest
management (IPM)

• re-evaluation of
traditional crops

• use of animal power

• dairy cooperatives

• animal breed
improvement

• pest/disease control

• food processing

• post-harvest loss
prevention

FISHERIES

• resource surveys

• aquaculture

• fish processing and
marketing

FORESTRY

• community forestry
and agroforestry

• policy development

• nurseries and
plantations

• forest industries

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

• people's
participation

• access to markets
and credit

• agricultural training

• appropriate
technology to assist
rural women

• rural energy

FOOD SECURITY
AND NUTRITION

• quality control

• early warning
systems

• remote sensing

• food stock
management and
distribution

Major FAO information systems

• AGRIS (International Information
System for the Agricultural Sciences
and Technology)

• ARTEMIS (Remote Sensing
Database)

• ASFIS (Aquatic Sciences and
Fisheries Information System)

• CARIS (Current Agricultural
Research Information System)

• FAOSTAT (Statistical Database for
WA1CENT)

• FISH DAB (Fisheries Statistical
Database)

• F1PIS (Fishery Project Information
System)

• FORIS (Forest Resources
Information System)

• GDAGR (Global Databank for Animal
Genetic Resources)

• GIEWS (Global Information and Earty
Warning System)

• GIS (Geographic Information
System)

• GIS-DAD (Global Information System
for Domestic Animal Diversity)

• GLOBEFISH (International Fish
Market Indicators)

• Land Resource Data Bank

• Plant Nutrition Data Bank

• Seed Information System

• WAiCENT (World Agricultural
Information Centre)

• WIEWS (World Information and Early
Warning System on Plant Genetic
Resources)

• World Forest Resources Inventory

E xchange of ideas, skills
and techniques is vital if
the majority of the world’s
people are to benefit from
technological advances. There
is nothing new about this: the
Babylonians taught the
ancient world how to make
bricks. Since the colonial era,
technology transfer has tended
to be a matter of patronage
between developed and
developing countries, rather
than an equal exchange.

While this type of cooperation
continues to he necessary,
technical cooperation among
developing countries (TCDC)

Regional centres and organizations

provide technical inputs, research,
training, and disseminate information
to promote regional cooperation. They
include:

• CARDNE (Centre for Agrarian
Reform and Rural Development in the
Near East)

• CIRDAFRICA (Centre fot Integrated
Rural Development in Africa)

• CIRDAP (Centre on Integrated and
Rural Development for Asia and the
Pacific)

• SADC (Southern African
Development Community)

Regional networksyprogrammes

coordinate research, information and
technical cooperation. They include:

• Coordination of Rinderpest
Eradication in West Africa project
(including cattle vaccination) -

1 1 countries

• Latin American Technical
Cooperation Network on Watershed
Management - 20 countries

• Near East Regional Research and
Development Network on Small
Ruminants - 10 countries

• Pacific Island countries cooperation
in root crop production and
development - 12 countries

• Regional Cooperative Programme
for Improvement of Food Legumes
and Coarse Grains - 14 Asian

countries

• Regional Cooperative Research
Programme (Network) on Fish
Technology in Africa - 16 countries

Trinidad and Tobago

Development and promotion

St Lucia

ID ■MM

Development tu

promotion prelects- __

• wood gasification
tor rural energy

Ecuador

To Dominican Republic:

• banana quality and
mark * ■
hnpn

Peru

Development and

promotion projects:

• small-scale hydropower

{also Colombia and Bofcvia)

Brazil

To odie» Latin American
countries

• tropical forest
management techniques

Development and promotion
protects:

• wood gasification lor rural

Argentina

Exchanges:

• trained Chinese
technicians m crop
biotechnology

• helped Nigeria m
oilseed and wheat
research

• small-scale hydropower

programmes

is becoming increasingly
important. Technologies
passed from one developing
country to another may work
herrer than those evolved in
the developed world.

Channels for technology
transfer include regional
centres for integrated
development in the Near East
(CARDNE), Asia and the
Pacific (CIRDAP) and Africa
(CIRDAIRICA); technical
cooperation networks (in
1994 there were some 25 of
them linked to institutions in
Latin America and the
Caribbean); and global

information networks, such
as AC.RIS/CARIS, set up by
FAO to provide information
on agricultural research and
technology. By mid- 1995, 73
countries and 2 700 experts
were participating in
AGRIS/CARIS.

Examples of TCDC include:

• The adoption of Asian
equipment by rice growers in
the Sahel. This includes push
rotary hoes and wceders, for
swift weeding, and a stove
developed in Viet Nam
which burns rice husks. By
burning hitherto unused

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY OIMLNSK >VS O» NfcfcO |a |

residues from rice mills,
the stoves reduce pressure
on forests for fuel wood

• An agreement between
India and the Philippines
which provides for study

• A regional workshop in
Buenos Aires in 1992,
attended by 1 9 Latin American

Viet Nam

To other Asian countries and to Sahel
(Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mall, Senegal):

• In- Trail rice-husk stove

• fas! weeding tods

To other Asian countries (Bangladesh. India. Indonesia. Myanmar):

• maize transplanting technique that allows a third crop each year

Mongolia

Exchange with other
developing countries
in and outside Asia:

• shared experience
of pastoral
development

China

Mutual exchanges with talm America and the Caribbean

• rural energy sources and tochnokotpes

• biogas technology

• shared experience of duck breedmg and genetic
improvement of pigs with Argentina

• urea-'ammoma treatment of straw for use as fodder
(economical alternative to gram teed and reduces
pollution from straw burnmgi

The UN Conference
on Environment and
Development -
the Earth Summit -
in 1992 placed
technology transfer
on the international
agenda as an essential
factor in development

programmes.

The map (left) shows
some selected
examples of technical
cooperation among
developing countries.

of design and
implementation of rura
development projects

India

i* change with 80 other ne «eloping countries

I organised by India’s National Bureau of Ptanl Genetic Resources (NBPGR)|:

• ocrmplasm exchange

Cambodia (organized by Indian NGO, Action for Food Production (AFPRO)l:

• model biogas ¿g ester, btogas technology for rural energy
’ Nigeria:

• rice and sugar cane farming/processing technioues
To Philippines:

• animal health, farm macfwiery, post-harvest techniques
Pioneered projects:

• techniques and equipment to extract and process fibre from pmeappie leaves to
make a range ot products - textiles/soM fuels/ roofing

Cyprus

To Near East
• training m artificial
insemination of
sheep

Pakistan

Thailand

Pioneered projects

Philippines

To India

• ftsh-tarming techniqu-

• vaccinology

To Burkina Faso. Nigeria

Zimbabwe:

• participative
banking/ savings
scheme

Pioneered projects:

• tuapia farming
techniques

and charcoal. They produce
no smoke, and the ash can
be used as fertilizer.

• The transfer of a model
biogas digester from India to
Cambodia. The digester was
developed for use in India by
a local NGO, Action for Food
Production (AFPRO), which
has now adapted it for
Cambodia, where
deforestation has been
exacerbated by two decades
of social upheaval.

visits, consultancies and the
exchange of information
and germptasm. The rwo
countries are engaged in
training each others’
technicians in a wide
range of fields. These
include fish farming and
vaccinology (from the
Philippines to India), and
animal health, farm
machinery and rhe post-
harvest treatment of cashew
nuts (from India to rhe
Philippines).

and Caribbean countries and
China, Nigeria and the
Philippines. Over 270 joint
projects were agreed. They
included Guatemalan training
of Argentinians in control of
the cattle worm; Argentinian
help to Nigeria on potato and
sunflower production and
marketing; Chilean advice to
China on wine production; and
the transfer of an ancienr Inca
method of preserving potatoes
from Peru to Guatemala,

Cuba and Colombia.

New technology using
waste materials is
spreading throughout
the developing world.
lo-Trau stove fuelled
by rice husks (top).
Meal cooked using
biogas made in the
family's own yard
using fermented
organic waste
(bottom).

DIMENSIONS Ol NI KI) BUILDING THE QLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copy rightec^/n aterial

A question of commitment

W orld food security

depends on increased,
and above all, better directed
investment in agricultural
development in the developing
world. This requires greater
commitment from both
developed and developing
countries.

Official aid to agriculture in
the developing countries rose
from some USS 1 1 000 million
a year in the early 1980s to
USS 14 000 million in 1988 -
but has now plummeted to less
than USS 10 000 million a
year in today's values. The
private sector, including farm
households, provides
80 percent of all investment.
Public spending on agriculture
within developing countries
has also fallen. It is difficult to
calculate exactly how much is
spent every year, but FAO data
suggest that between 1977 and
1992 some USS 26 000 million
a year was invested in on-farm
improvements and some
US$ 16 000 million a year in
post-harvest facilities and in
agro-industry.

Estimates suggest that the
level of net investment will not
have to increase much, in most
of the world, to meet the needs
of the next two decades: the
exception is sub-Saharan
Africa, where investment must
double. However, gross
investment, including capital
stock maintenance, needs to
grow by about US$ 39 000
million a year in primary and
post-production operations.

Of this, US$ 5 000 million
must be spent on rural
infrastructure and social
services, which have been
neglected by both national
governments and donors. Less
than 10 percent of the
US$ 200 000 million spent on
infrastructure in the
developing world in 1993

Bcundanw ot nitons lermed snee 1902 |in lormnr Yugos! »i»
in fomtr CiecnofKniiUB, Crntati nv shown m gray
Source. UHDf>

went to the countryside.

Priorities for investment
have shifted in recent years as
a result of diminishing per
caput availability of land,
environmental concerns and a
greater focus on people and
poverty. Future needs include
the development of new
technology; intensification (via
irrigation, land improvement,
mechanization and the use of
purchased inputs); the
improvement or construction
of facilities to handle, store,
process, transport and market
produce; and the improvement
of rural roads, power supplies
and telecommunications.

These priorities vary from

region to region. In Asia and
Latin America, for example,
rapid urban growth calls for
relatively large investment in
marketing and processing. In
Africa, rural infrastructure is a
top priority.

Issues such as locust and
desertification control, early
warning systems for drought
and famines, outbreaks of
plant and animal disease, and
shared fishery and water
resources involve more than
one country at a time.
Investment is particularly weak
and difficult to organize unless
the countries concerned are
committed to finding
solutions.

Overseas aid per caput, 1992

USS

Net donors: Net recipients:

200 and over I I 0-19

WÊÊ 100-199 HI 20-39

□ 0-99 CZ3 40-59

60 and over

I I Insufficient
data

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

A QUESTION OF COMMITMENT

•k.*

Overseas aid flows

Development patterns
that perpetuate
today’s inequities are
neither sustainable
nor worth sustaining.

DIMENSIONS Oh M I D BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Copy righted’fri aterial

COTE D'IVOIRE

A QUESTION OF COMMITMENT

Members of tbe
village committee
of Ankofafa,
Madagascar, inspect
the results of
community anti-
erosion measures.

Selected developing
countries:

Sub-Saharan Africa

Small farmers are the major
agents of agricultural
improvement in the
developing world. They
invest their savings and
labour; they have the most to
lose or gain from the projects
designed by governments or
aid agencies. Their
commitment is vital to any
success.

In the past, city-based
experts and planners have
tended to overlook grassroots
opinion and expertise. FAO s
Investment Centre <IC) helps
potential borrowers to design
projects for investment by
donors and has placed great
importance in recent years on
involving farmers in the
process. This makes it

Sourer MvtfJte*

Latin America

possible to tailor projects to
farmers* needs and to
establish what innovations
they are prepared to adopt.

In Zaire, for example,
collaboration between farmers
and peasant organizations has
helped strengthen agricultural
extension in six pilot areas of
the country. A wide variety of
farmer-driven and
government-supported
initiatives in agricultural
training have enabled an
estimated 320 000 farmers to
be reached over a five-year
period. The farmers were
trained in areas such as
agroforestry, market
gardening and animal
husbandry. Similar work in
China has led to nearly
USS 1 000 million worth of
projects. Further projects arc
starting in Armenia, Jordan,
Mali and Zambia.

Indicators of rural poverty

Rural population as percentage of total population
Rural poor as percentage of total poor

•»«

BUILDING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY DIMENSIONS OE NfcED

Food and
Agriculture:
the Future

Dimensions of Need

Copyrighted material

The most basic of
human rights is the
right to adequate food
and nutrition.

FAQ seeks to mobilize
international and
national support for
the establishment of
world food security.

N o human right is more
fundamental than the right
to food. Other human rights
mean relatively little to those
who are starving. Vet, although
the world has enough food for
all - and its average availability
per caput has increased over
the past three decades - some
800 million people are still
chronically malnourished.
Although the diets needed to
provide the nutrients essential
for a healthy and productive
life are known, an estimated
2 000 million people still suffer
from micronutrient deficiency
diseases.

The United Nations, since
its inception, has insisted that
access to adequate food is a
universal human right and a
collective responsibility of the
world community. In 1948 the
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights recognized that
“everyone has the right to a
standard of living adequate for
the health and well-being of

himself and his family,

including food...”. In 1966,
the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights developed this more
explicitly, stressing the “right
of everyone to... adequate
food” and specifying that
everyone’s fundamental right is
to be free of hunger. The same
rights were reaffirmed at the
1974 World Food Conference.

FAO’s Constitution clearly
sets out its intention of

ensuring humanity’s freedom
from hunger and calls on
governments to take action,
individually and collectively, to
help to bring this about. The
Organization looks beyond
promoting food production to
examining conditions for a
stable food supply and to
aiming to ensure that everyone
always has both physical and
economic access to basic food
needs. In 1983 the FAO
Conference adopted three key
guidelines for world food
security: ensuring adequate
food availability; providing
access to food, particularly for

the poor; and enhancing the
stability of food supplies. FAO
continues to press for wider
recognition of the right to food
and, in 1992, it initiated the
Declaration of Barcelona
which emphasizes food rights
and seeks to mobilize support
from international
organizations, governments,
non-governmental
organizations and individuals.
This right to food found a
practical expression in the
Plan of Action adopted by the
joint FAO/WHO International
Conference on Nutrition
in 1992.

100

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

Agriculture in the
twenty-first century

A s wc progress into the next
century, the world as a
whole will continue to produce
enough to teed an increasing
population. Nutrition will
continue to improve in most
developing regions. But the
disparities between regions will
become even greater, with sub-
Saharan Africa particularly
badly affected.

The rate of growth in world
food production, which has
been slowing down tor the past
three decades, will continue to
decelerate. It dropped from
3 percent a year in the 1 960s to
2 percent in the 1980s, and is
expected to continue to fall to
1.8 percent in 2010. World
population, meanwhile, is
forecast to increase to around
7 000 million, 94 percent of the
increase being in developing
countries.

Food supplies for direct
human consumption will
increase in developing countries
from about 2 500 calories per
caput per day in the early

1990s to just over 2 700
calories in 2010. By then three
regions - East Asia (including
China), North Africa and the
Near East, and Latin America
and the Caribbean - are likely
to reach or exceed the 3 000
calorie mark. South Asia may
make significant progress,
coming close to the present
developing country average.

But in sub-Saharan Africa -
where nutrition has already
declined over the past three
decades - food supplies per
caput are likely to grow little, if
at all, remaining at less than
2 200 calories a day.

As a result, sub-Saharan
Africa is likely to take over
from South Asia as the region
with the greatest number of
chronically undernourished
people; the number is expected
to grow there from 200 million
at the start of the 1990s to
around 300 million 20 years
later, while the number in
South Asia is expected to fall
only marginally from the

present 250 million. These
broad estimates indicate there
may be fewer chronically
malnourished in the developing
world, despite population
growth: down from the present
800 million to 650 million. But
this estimate shows that past
hopes that the world would be
on a firm path to eliminating
hunger and malnutrition by the
end of the century remain
optimistic in the absence of any
new, major global initiative that
might significantly change
present perspectives.

Total imports of agricultural
products by developing
countries are growing faster
than exports. For some, this
will reflect the development
process as they turn away from
economies dominated by
agriculture. But for those low-
income countries that remain
heavily dependent on
agricultural exports to finance
food and other imports it will
reduce their chances for
sustainable economic growth.

The future, just like the
past, is likely to be
characterized by a mix
of successes and
failures along the path
towards a better fed
world and more
sustainable livelihoods
and agriculture.

Per caput food
supplies

Calories per day

El 1969-71
□ 1990-92

nn 2oio

Sub-Saharan Africa

2 040
2170

North Africa and Near East

■■■

2 960
3120

South Asia

East Asia

2300
2 450

2050

3 040

Latin America and Caribbean
2 510
2 740
2 950

Developed countries

Food supplies and crop production

Major crops in _ . 300 _ 300

. Barley Cassava

developing 250 250

countries

3100
3 300
3470 71

Coffee

DIMi NSION'S Oi Ml I) FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyrightetdmaterial

AGRICULTURE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Share of wheat crop
area planted to
modem wheat
varieties* in
developing countries
Percentages

I 1970 □ 1983
] 1977 CZ3 1990

Area not yet
planted with
modem varieties

Forecasts suggest that
by 2010, agriculture
will tend to be more
intensive and more
productive.

Increasing yields

I ncreases in food production
by the year 20 10 will depend
on further intensification of
agriculrurc in developing
countries. Together with
growth in yields, more land will
be brought into production and
the existing land used more
intensively.

Growth in yields has been
the main cause of increases in
production in the past, and will
be even more important in the
future, particularly in Asia and
North Africa and the Near
Fast, where land is scarce.
Yields of both wheat and rice
are expected to grow
substantially, if less rapidly
than in the past, but this will
depend on an unabated
research effort.

Fertilizer use in developing
countries (excluding China) has
grown four-fold over the past
20 years, although the rate of
growth declined sharplv from
the 1970s to the 1980s.
Application is expected to go
on increasing, while the rate of
growth will continue to fall: it
is forecast that some 80 million
tonnes of nutrients in the form
of fertilizer will he used in
developing countries, outside
China, in 2010, compared to
37 million tonnes in the early
1990s.

Internal renewable water
resources per caput, 1992

Thousand cubic metres per year

- 3 . -

Boundaries <A ntóens formed snee 1992 im terme Yutjosl«ii
in Iwmei CnctKoiotttua, lr«Ueai are shown n grey.

Sourer World ftosourcn, 1994 95

MÊÊ 50.0 and over

□ 10.0-49.9

□ 5.0 -9.9
dl 2.0 -4.9
f I Under 2.0

I Insufficient data

The amount of land under
cultivation is expected to
increase. In 1995 about
760 million hectares were used
to produce crops in the least
developed countries (excluding
China): this could grow to
some 850 million hectares by
2010. Only about 600 million
of the 760 million hectares in
use arc actually cropped and
harvested in an average year - a
cropping intensity of
79 percent. This rate of use
could increase to 85 percent,
bringing the total harvested
area to some 720 million
hectares by 2010.

The area occupied hv human
settlements could increase by

some 35 million hectares, some
of which will he land with
agrie Lilt u ral potential. The
expansion would take place
mainly in sub-Saharan Africa
and Latin America and the
Caribbean, although rhere
might also be some in East Asia
(excluding China).

Achieving higher yields
and greater intensification
will depend crucially on
maintaining and expanding
irrigation systems; they will
have to increase by 23 million
hectares, or 1 9 percent, over
and above the area lost to
waterlogging and salinization.
The hulk of this increase would
be in South Asia.

102

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIME NMONS OF MFI> rial

AGRICULTURE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Fertilizer use in
developing countries

Kilograms per hectare
of crop land

(ZD 1988-90
□ 2010

Sub-Saharan Africa
11
21

North Africa and
Near East

175

South Asia

138

East Asia
(excluding China)

128

Latin America and
Caribbean

117

Sustainable production

Working towards eliminating
undernutrition and food
insecurity in developing
countries is only one of the
two main tasks that have to
be undertaken in order to
feed present and future
generations. The other is the
need to safeguard the
productive potential and
broader environmental
functions of agricultural
resources.

The FAO Forest Resources
Assessment of tropical
countries in 1990 estimated
their annual deforestation to he
about 15.4 million hectares or
0.8 percent of the total tropical

forest area. Agricultural
expansion is a major
contributor to deforestation and
is expected to continue to be so.
Tlie impact of the expansion of
crop production need not be
great. More deforestation is
likely to continue, however, as a
resulr of the extension of
grazing and of informal,
unrecorded - often slash-and-
burn - agriculture. Both
deforestation and the draining
of wetlands for agriculture will
reduce biological diversity.

Water

Demand for water is expected
to grow in years to come, hut
Africa and Asia are already

experiencing an increasing
shortage in the availability of
water per caput. In many
countries throughout the world
water resources are scarcer
than land availability. The need
to increase agricultural
production will accentuate
pressures on water; the
resulting scarcity may drive up
prices beyond economic levels
for crops in some areas.
Meanwhile over-extraction of
groundwater, particularly in
the Near East and large areas
of South Asia, is causing water
levels to fall beneath the reach
of the shallow tubewells used
for irrigation, or leading to
intrusions of salt water which

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyrighte ‘"material

AGRICULTURE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

In the future, the
current problems
of water distribution
and resource and
environmental
degradation are likely
to Increase.

make it unsuitable for crop
production. Water
contamination from a
number of sources including
fertilizers, pesticides and the
effluents of intensive livestock
units and fish farms, is likely
to increase.

The problem of land
degradation is also likely to
grow. Degradation from
“nutrient mining” - denuding

soils of major nutrients such as
nitrogen and phosphorus and
micronurrients such as boron
and manganese - is serious in
many countries, but most acute
in sub-Saharan Africa.

Poverty is a major driving
force behind rural
environmental damage, as more
and more people try to extract
a living out of dwindling
resources, producing a risk of a
vicious circle of human
deprivation and resource
degradation. But it is not
exclusively to blame.

Wealthier areas of the world,
such as Western Europe and

Reducing and eliminating
rural poverty is the most
effective way both to tackle
hunger and to promote
development, concludes the
FAO study World
Agriculture: Towards 2010.

It says, “Only a combination
of faster, poverty reducing
development and public
policy, both national and
international, will ultimately

Rural illiteracy rates
Percentages

0 20 40 60 80 100

Sub-Saharan

Africa

North Africa
and Near East

South Asia

China

Rest of
East Asia

Latin America
and Caribbean

I I Female
Male

Saun# (MSCO

Rural poverty

improve access to food by the
poor and eliminate chronic
undernutrition.”

Increasing agricultural
production as such will not
end hunger since poor people
may not be able to afford to
buy the food that is
produced; increasing the
output in countries highly
dependent on agriculture will,
however, boost rural incomes
and thus reduce poverty and
assist development, since
most of the world’s poorest
people depend on agriculture
as the main source of their
income.

Policies that neglected
agriculture and promoted
inappropriate technologies
and management practices
arc now discredited. The
FAO study calls for the
shifting of technology from
such “hardware" solutions as
large doses of pesticides or
building terraces w ith
machines, to “solutions based
on more sophisticated,
knowledge and information-
intensive resource

North America, have also
suffered resource
degradation, including soil
erosion, water pollution and
deforestation. They have
responded, in part, by
changing policies and
incentives and by increasing
investment. Most important
of all, they have devised
technological options and
innovation and have
educated land users in how
to protect the resource base
while increasing productivity.
This is the same challenge
facing many developing
countries today.

management practices which
can lower both off-farm costs
and environmental
pressures”. New policies and
institutional measures will be
needed to help farmers,
forest users and fishcrfolk
pursue sustainable
agricultural and rural
development.

Access to land, through
land reform, is a major factor
in poverty alleviation and
agricultural growth. Progress
so far has been limited, but
the case for reform remains
strong on both efficiency and
equity grounds. The poor in
agriculture need better access
to rural finance and better
marketing services. And
they need education, training
and technical assistance to
help them to be open to the
new and profitable
innovations that will be
especially necessary in the
transition to sustainable
development. In this there is
a role both for direct
government intervention and
for private sector initiatives.

I(M

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIMENSIONS OF NEED |

Sharing the world’s resources

L ess than one-quarter of the
world’s people, those who
live in the developed countries
of both West and Hast,
consume 80 percent of the
energy and metals and
85 percent of the paper used
each year. Three countries, the
United States, Germany and
Japan, together produce more
than half of the planet’s
economic output, while the
450 million people of sub-
Saharan Africa share about the
same amount as the 10 million
who live in Belgium.

The high consumption and
high productivity of the
industrialized countries need to
be balanced by a shift in
investment, research and
development, productive
capacity, and management and
other skills to the developing
world. At the same time, the
developed countries need to
become more efficient by
reducing waste and paying the
full price of goods and raw
materials imported from
developing countries.

The intensive use of energy
by the industrialized countries
causes pollution and contributes
to global warming, while the
overnutrition of many of their
people causes disease and death.
Poverty in many developing
countries leads people to cut
down forests, damage
watersheds and degrade the
land, while undernutrition also
kills and gravely damages
health. A more equitable
sharing of resources would
assist development and help
reduce critical pressures on the
environment in developed and
developing countries alike.

The 1992 UN Conference
on Environment and
Development, the Earth
Summit, focused world
attention on sustainability and
natural resources, and set out
in Agenda 21 a plan of action
for future global partnerships.
FAO played a major role in
drafting Agenda 21 and has
been designated the “task
manager” for following up
many of its resolutions.

The Organization’s primary
responsibilities cover land
resources, forests, mountain
ecosystems, and sustainable
agriculture and rural
development. But it is also
involved in water resources,
control of desertification,
conservation of biological
diversity, oceans and coastal
issues, and the provision of
information tor decision
making. FAO promotes joint
activities and programmes to

The richest quarter of
the world’s population
accounts for more than
three-quarters of
consumption of many
natural resources. At
the other end of the
spectrum, the poor
satisfy their Immediate
needs by destroying
their local resources -
slash-and-burn
agriculture, Mexico
(below).

Per caput energy
consumption, 1991

Kilograms of oil equivalent

5 000 and over
CZD 3000-4999
CZZ! 1 500 - 2 999
CZZ 500-1 499
H Under 500
I I Insufficient data

Figures are for commercufly traded energy o«y
Bruvlanes of n«wns tormrt wee 1991
(*» ftxmtf » ogoBUwd. « forwer Crocito jJuneua,
Erttreal aro shown n grey.

Source UKOP

DIMENSIONS CH MID FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyrighted? material

SHARING THE WORLD’S RESOURCES

Terraced farmland,
Nepal. FAO supports
many programmes
designed to meet the
particular needs of
mountain areas such
as this, and their
inhabitants.

encourage the exchange of
information, to help develop
common strategies and to
consolidate and analyse
information for presentation to
the Commission for
Sustainable Development
established as a result of the
Earth Summit. It also chairs
UN sub-committees on oceans
and water resources that
coordinate the implementation
of the corresponding

Agenda 21 chapters.

Diagnosing information for
sound decision making is a
major objective of Agenda 21.
EAO is developing indicators
of sustainable agriculture and
rural development (SARD) for
a number of areas including
forest management (with the
International Tropical Timber
Organization) and land quality
(with the World Bank). It is
promoting the design and
application of measures to
assist countries in analysing
the effects of economic
development on environmental
and social systems.

FAO is supporting efforts to
strengthen international
cooperation and the exchange
of information on such issues
as watershed management and
development of appropriate
farming systems. It is helping
to formulate national action
plans and investment
programmes: encouraging the
participation of representatives
from mountain communities in
national development
planning; and is promoting

the conservation and
development of the
technologies and cultures of
mountain areas.

FAO is assisting many
countries in sustainable
agricultural development. It
promotes the conservation and
sustainable use of plant and
animal genetic resources for
food and agriculture, fosters
sustainable rural energy
production and extends the
application of integrated pest
management, integrated
systems for plant nutrition
and other cost-effective,
environment-friendly
technologies. It encourages the
wise use of natural resources
through land and water
m a n ágeme n t progra m mes .

FAO helps to obtain
investment intended to meet
these objectives and direct it to
resource users. It has also
developed agro-ecological zone
mapping, evaluating land
potential and matching soils,
climate and environment to
crop requirements.

Per caput food
production, 1988-93

Average percentage
rates of change
Increase:

M More than 5.00 CZI 0 - 1 .00
■i 3.01 - 5.00
1.01-3.00
□ 0 . 01 - 1.00

I Insufficient

d 1.01-2.00

H 2.01 - 4.00
M 4.01 - 10.00
More than 10.00

Boundaries cT newry- loaned ruinai un former USSR,
o ferme» VuijojIb.im in formar C/eciwtiwaua, Erflraei
are tfwwn w ye*

IOh

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

DIMENSIONS Of NEED

Global warming

Earth's

surface radiated
nèsti'mfra-œd
radiation) back *
into atmosphere

Burning of
fossil fuels

Oceans warm
water evaporate*
and vapour adds
to heat trap

About 30 percent
of infra-red radiation
escapes back
into space

A griculture depends on the
climate more than any
other human activity, and so
is particularly vulnerable to
climatic change. The
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
estimates that as a result of
increasing human-induced
emissions of carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide and
other “greenhouse gases”,
average temperatures may
climb by about 0.3 degrees
centigrade per decade over
the next century, while sea
levels could rise by at least
2-4 centimetres per decade.
This will have an impact, still
to be quantified, on
agriculture, forestry, fisheries,
food security, biodiversity
and rural environmental
conditions.

Not all of the effects of
global warming would be
harmful to agriculture. Higher
concentrations of carbon

dioxide can have a fertilizing
effect under optimal growing
conditions: 1 0-20 percent of
improved crop productivity
over the past century could be
the result of the gradual
increase in the level of the gas;
and crop productivity could
increase further, by up to
30 percent, if the
concentration of carbon
dioxide doubles as foreseen
over the next 50 years. It
could also offset the damage
done to plant growth by other
pollutants, and increase the
efficiency with which crops use

water. Rising temperatures
could increase the yield of
some plants, while diminishing
others. Rainfall could also
increase, by about 10 percent,
but its distribution and
intensity would change; some
areas would benefit, others
would be harmed, bur it is not
yet certain which ones.

Overall, global warming is

expected to add to the
difficulties of increasing food
production. The weather and
climate would become more
unpredictable, making farming
and planning more difficult.
Present agricultural zones
would shift, sometimes by
hundreds of kilometres in
latitude and by hundreds of
metres in altitude on hills and
mountains. Some plant and
animal species, particularly
those such as trees w ith long
life cycles, might not be able
to adjust to this and poorer
farmers, in particular, would
find it hard to adapt. Fishing
areas may also shift, leading
to disruption, although the
overall productivity of the
oceans might stay about the
same. Diseases and pests
would possibly increase.
Biological diversity could be at
risk in natural environments
such as tropical forests and
mangroves. And the rise in sea

Naturally occurring
greenhouse gases
keep the earth warm
enough to be
habitable. Increasing
their concentrations
and adding new ones
will gradually make
the earth quile a
different place.

Potential changes in
surface temperature
according to the
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC)

Degrees centigrade

— Observed average
temperature g

IPCC scenario:

Best estimate 4

I I Range of

DIMI.NMONS Ol Mill FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

CopyrightedWaterial

GLOBAL WARMING

According to the best
estimate by the
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change, if present
trends continue, sea
levels may rise by
about 40 centimetres
by the end of the next
century. Small island
states, such as the
Bahamas, Maldives
and Tonga, will be
most affected.

Greenhouse gases

Concentration of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere

Parts per million

Contribution of greenhouse gases to
global warming, 1980-90

Percentages

1959 65 70 75 80 85 90 1990 2000 2025 2050 2100

Sourve PCC

levels would increase flooding,
submerging or waterlogging
coastal plains which are
among the most productive,
and highly populated, lands.

Global warming is likely to
accentuate the existing
imbalance in world food
production between the
developed and developing
countries. Cooler, temperate
Deforestation reduces regions - home to the
a vital store of carbon industrialized countries - are
dtoxWe. expected to receive most of the

benefits from global warming,
while tropical and subtropical
ones are likely to suffer most.
Farmers in wealthier countries
are also most likely to be able
to adapt to climate change.
Sub-Saharan Africa, where
food production already lags
behind the rest of the world, is
expected to be hardest hit.

Carbon dioxide (COj) is the
most important greenhouse gas
after water vapour. Much
atmospheric C0 2 originates
from use of fossil fuels for the
production of energy in
industrialized countries but
about 30 percent has been
estimated to result from
deforestation and other land
use practices such as rangeland
burning. Some 35 percent of
worldwide methane emissions
are now estimated to arise
from fermentation in rice
paddies and in the digestive

systems of cattle and other
ruminants. And agriculture,
including the application of
nitrogenous fertilizers, may
account for as much as
90 percent of nitrous oxide
emissions.

The growth of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere can
be slowed by reducing the rate
of deforestation. Using biofuels
derived from plants, instead of
fossil fuels, will also reduce
these emissions. Changes in
land management techniques
such as reforestation would
stimulate the annual terrestrial
uptake of atmospheric C0 2
and its storage in the organic-
matter of arable or grassland
soils. FAO is helping
governments and people to
reduce emissions of methane
and nitrous oxide, which
have no positive effects on
plant growth, by improving
the use of nitrogenous
fertilizer, modifying irrigated
rice cultivation and feeding
cattle a well-balanced diet -
including, for example, straw'
treated with urea - that
produces less methane than
diets of untreated roughage.

The Organization also
monitors the condition of
tropical forests, helps to
combat deforestation and
promotes the planting of trees.
It is developing plans for
preparing for disasters and
early warning systems for
droughts, outbreaks of pests
and diseases, and other
“extreme events" affecting
food and agriculture. It is
promoting the development of
more resilience in agriculture:
for example, by encouraging
diversification and developing
improved crop varieties and
animal breeds. And it is
stimulating further research to
assess the impact of global
warming on food production.

I OK

FOOD ANO AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE I »t\|l NMONs Ol NULD t |

The challenge of
sustainability

“Sustainable
development Is
pro-people, pro-jobs
and pro-nature”
Human Development
Report 1994.

T here are five root causes of
unsustainable agricultural
practices and degradation of
the rural environment:

Policy failure

Leading among the causes of
unsustainable agriculture are
inadequate or inappropriate
policies which include pricing,
subsidy and tax policies which
have encouraged the excessive,
and often uneconomic, use of
inputs such as fertilizers and
pesticides, and the
overexploitation of land. They
may also include policies that
favour farming systems which
are inappropriate both to the
circumstances of the farming
community and available
resources.

Rural inequalities

Rural people often know best
how to conserve their
environment, but they may

need to overexploit resources
in order to survive. Meanwhile
commercial exploitation by
large landowners and
companies often causes
environmental degradation in
pursuit of higher profits.

Resource imbalances

Almost all of the future
growth in the world's
population will be in
developing countries and
the biggest increases will be
in the poorest countries of
all, those least equipped to
meet their own needs or invest
in the future.

Unsustainable technologies

New technologies have boosted
agricultural production
worldwide, but some have had
harmful side effects which
must be contained and
reversed, such as resistance of
insects to pesticides, land

degradation through wind or
water erosion, nutrient
depletion or poor irrigation
management and the loss of
biological diversity.

Trade relations

As the value of raw materials
exported by developing
countries has fallen, their
governments have sought to
boost income by expansion of
crop production and timber
sales that have damaged the
environment.

In the long term,
increasing food
production depends on
using natural
resources sustainably,
not destroying them.

OIMI NSIONS (» M i l) FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

THE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Drylands

M ost of the 20 million

square kilometres of the
world's drylands - which
support 500 million people -
are subject to degradation;
some 60 000 square

kilometres of land are lost
each year. The main strategies
for sustainable agriculture and
rural development must be to
create employment locally and
to find alternatives to
practices which overexploit
the land. Low-cost soil and
water conservation measures
are needed, while the pressure
on fuelwood can be reduced
by tapping other local sources
of energy, such as wind and
biogas. Planting legume-based
crops and trees, which fix
their own nitrogen, can
reverse the depletion of soil
nutrients and reduce the need
for mineral fertilizers.

Proposals for progress

FAO proposes a choice of four key
strategies to attain sustainable
agriculture and rural development. The
first two promote intensification; the
third and fourth arc applicable when
limits on natural resources or
environmental or socio-economic
constraints make this unsustainable.

Intensification through specialization This
is mainly suited to land with high crop
potential. It depends on the judicious
use of external inputs such as pesticides
and fertilizers combined with improved
agricultural and related practices.

The introduction of improved
soil management, integrated pest
management and efficient waste
management all promote sustainability.

Intensification through diversification This
is suited to a wider range of conditions.
Mixed cropping systems, plus improved
management techniques, help promote
maximum efficiency in natural resource
use. Diversification can minimize
environmental and socio-economic
risks, assist waste recycling and reduce
the need for external inputs.

Combining on-farm and off-farm activities
Promoting additional sources of income
can limit pressure on natural resources.

Extensive systems Suited to marginal
areas, or ones with low agricultural
potential, they can either be specialized
(as in ranching) or diversified (as in
shifting cultivation). Few external inputs
arc used, so integrated pest management,
water management, and the
conservation and maintenance of soil
fertility are particularly important. The
sustainability of these systems depends
on having low population densities and
only light pressure on natural resources.

Three objectives should guide the choice
between these options:

• improving efficiency in the use of
resources and inputs;

• increasing the resilience of
agriculture and producers to adverse
socio-economic and environmental
conditions;

• promoting diversity, through varied
farming systems that help spread the
farmer’s risks or the use of areas for
other purposes, such as forestry.

Overgrazing can be
reduced by encouraging
greater control over the use
of resources and increasing
rhe offtake of livestock by-
improving market networks.
The reduction or removal of
subsidies and other actions
that reduce the cost of
maintaining livestock can
also encourage greater
offtake. Growing hay,
development of leguminous
forage and rhe promotion of
species of trees and shrubs
that arc productive during
the dry season can provide
alternative sources of feed
and alleviate shortages.

Irrigated land

A bout 35 percent of all
irrigated land - the major
source of cereals and export
crops - is at risk of salinization
because of poor management.
Efficient use of water can be
promoted by local farmers
participating in drainage and
irrigation design, improved
training and water pricing
policies that curb excessive use.
Small-scale schemes planned
and implemented by local
institutions can reduce many
irrigation problems if backed
by national policies that
effectively support appropriate
technologies, credit, marketing,
energy supplies and
maintenance of equipment.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE I >IMLNSlO\S OF NIU>

THE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Tropical forests

H umid and semi*humid
forests support 1 000
million people and are the
world’s largest biomass
reservoir, but their
sustainability is threatened
by the removal of trees and
the degradation of
watersheds. Most of this is
caused by clearing for
agriculture, which is
unsustainable either
because the fertility of the
soil is low or because the
methods of cultivation are
unsuitable.

To meet the needs of their
increasing populations, most
developing countries will
need to convert some of their
forest areas for agricultural
use, but this needs to be done
on the basis of land use
planning that ensures that it is
sustainable.

The pace of deforestation
will be slowed only by
ensuring that the conservation
and management of forest
resources are more attractive
to local people than their
destruction, and thar
commercial interests use
forest land in a sound,
sustainable way.

Options to help achieve
this include agroforestry
involving food crops and trees;
the sustainable harvesting of
non-wood forest products;
and sustainable forest
management and timber
harvesting.

The Den Bosch Declaration

In April 1991, KAO held a
conference on agriculture
and the environment, with
the cooperation of the
Netherlands Government,
attended by senior
government officials and
experts from some 120
countries. It adopted the Den
Bosch Declaration calling for
“ fundamental changes” in
development policies and
strategies so as to meet the
world’s increasing need for
food without degrading the
environment. These changes
included:

• the participation of rural
people in the research and
development of systems for
more efficient management of
the natural resources
available to the farmer;

• devolving the responsibility
and authority for decision
making to the local level,
rather than relying on “top
down” administration;

• allocating clear and fair
legal rights and obligations
on the use of land and other
natural resources, including
land reforms as necessary;

• investing in improving,
rehabilitating and conserving
natural resources;

• adjusting economic and
agricultural policies and
instruments to promote
production systems and
technologies that can help
attain sustainability;

• encouraging demand and
providing incentives that
favour crops and animals
that can be produced and
processed sustainably;

• promoting practices,
production and processing
systems that pay particular
attention to safeguarding
health and the quality of the
environment;

• promoting opportunities in
rural areas to earn
livelihoods off the farm.

Hill and mountain areas

T he world’s highlands cover
10 million square
kilometres, and serve as
watersheds for far more. In
Asia, for example, some
9 million square kilometres of
downstream land is at risk of
flooding as a result of
highland degradation. The
central objectives must be to
raise farm productivity using
low-cost technologies, and to
reduce population pressure.
Policies that promote
employment in agriculture and
opportunities for income
outside it are recommended.
Perennial tree and shrub
crops, and mixing crops and
livestock, provide sustainable
alternatives to shifting
agriculture and produce higher
incomes from far less land.

Sustainable forest
management and agroforestry
provide fodder, fuelwood and
timber, and reduce erosion.
Moderate slopes should be
reserved for horticultural and
fodder crops, steep ones for

tree crops - possibly through
incentives and regulations.
Overgrazing can be countered
by selling more livestock,
sterilization and culling, and
controlling livestock by stall
feeding. Improved breeds and
animal health will raise
productivity, even with fewer
animals.

As these areas often have
poor access, their management
relies on local initiatives, but
these must be complemented
by development of roads,
hydropower schemes, and
better credit and marketing.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Fair and free trade

It Is often assumed
that agricultural trade
liberalization will
benefit developing
countries, but the
regions that will
benefit most, in the
short term, from the
GATT Agreement on
Agriculture are among
the richest in the
world.

The present net
surplus in the
agricultural trade
balance of developing
countries is likely to
decrease in the future.

T he Uruguay Round of the
General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
concluded in December 1993,
is the first to include the
liberalization of agricultural
trade. Its Agreement on
Agriculture could cut tariffs by
an average of 36 percent in
developed countries and
24 percent in developing ones
and reduce domestic support
for producers by 20 percent
and 13.3 percent respectively.
Expenditure on export
subsidies is to be cut by
36 percent. Developing
countries have ten years in
which to make the cuts,
compared with six for
developed countries; the least
developed arc not required to
make any reductions at all.

Food prices will rise and this
will, naturally, benefit
exporters and hurt importing
countries. But farmers in
developing countries may also
gain because subsidized
exports from developed
countries have undercut them,
reducing production. For the
same reason, the food security
of developing countries should
also improve. There should he
some reduction in agricultural
production in the developed
countries and a slight rise in
the developing ones, hut the
total world harvest will hardly
he affected.

In all, the value of world
agricultural trade is expected
to rise by about I percent.

Half of this will result from
higher prices, half from
increases in volume. The
Agreement is likely to slow
down the general decline in the
growth rate of world trade
seen since the 1980s - caused
mainly by decreased imports
by the main developed
countries - hut it seems
unlikely to halt it.

In fact, the impact of the
Agreement is expected to be
comparatively small since it
represents only partial
liberalization. The cuts in
support to agriculture,
although impressive in
absolute numbers of dollars,
are relatively small and are
spread over a number of years.
Even after the changes have
been completed, a large degree
of distortion will remain in the
market. The Agreement calls
for the process of liberalization
to continue with the long-term
objective of “substantial
progressive reductions in
support and protection,
resulting in fundamental
reform".

The regions that will benefit
most from the Agreement on
Agriculture are among the
richest in the world, while
many developing countries,
particularly in Africa, are
likely to lose from it.

The implications for
individual countries of FAO’s
projections for agricultural
commodity markets following
the implementation of the
Uruguay Round stem from
changes in market prices,
new opportunities for exports
and the extent to which
external markets may
influence producers and
consumers.

F.xports of developed
countries in the year 2000
would he some ÚSS 1 7 000
million higher as a result of
the Agreement on Agriculture
and those of developing
countries would increase by
some U$$ 9 300 million. At
the same time, imports of
developed countries are
projected to increase by about
USS 19 000 million compared
with an increase of USS 6 400
million for developing
countries. The major

beneficiaries are the great food
exporting regions of North
America, the Southwest Pacific
and Latin America.

Developing countries will
face considerable changes in
world market conditions, and
they will he hurt by a side-effect
of liberalization: the erosion in
the value of the preferences that
industrialized countries give to
produce from some developing
countries. The agricultural
preferences given by the
European Union, Japan and the
United States in 1 992 were
potentially worth US$ I 900
million; this is expected to fall
by nearly half (US$ 800 million)
as a result of the Uruguay
Round. Many of the recipients
of such preferential schemes are
among the poorest developing
countries.

Most African countries tend
to be importers of food,
particularly wheat, rice and

112

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIMENSIONS OF NfcEIl

FAIR AND FREE TRADE

promotes diversification in
their export crops. The rise in
world prices and decrease in
export subsidies offers them
an opportunity to reward
their farmers better in order
to encourage greater
production.

Much of Asia is largely
self-sufficient in food and its
agricultural exports are
expected to increase as a
result of the Agreement.

In Latin America and the
Caribbean a rise in
agricultural export earnings
is expected to outweigh
greatly the increase in the
cost of food imports, so that
the region’s favourable
balance of trade should rise
from US$ 20 000 million in
1987-89 to U$$ M 000
million in the year 2000:

US$ 2 400 million of this
estimated increase is ascribed
to the Uruguay Round.

Under the GATT
Agreement on
Agriculture, food prices
will rise on the world
markets. This will
favour exporting
countries but also
offers importing
countries an
opportunity to reward
their farmers and
reduce imports.

dairy products, and exporters
of tropical products such as
cocoa, coffee and fruit and
some agricultural raw
materials. Twenty-eight of
them arc among the least
developed and 44 are among
the low-income food-deficit
countries. The increases in the
price of food from temperate
areas as a result of the
Agreement are likely to cause
a substantial rise in their
import bills; the value of their
exports would also rise but
nor by so much. Estimates

suggest that their US$ 1 000
million export surplus in all
agricultural commodities in
1987-89 will become a deficit
of USS 500 million in the year
2000, partly as a result of the
Uruguay Round.

Most African countries
could well have to give greater
weight to a strategy that
increases food production and

Probable evolution of net agricultural trade balance

Net balance

Ukety changes

Net balance

Likely changes

(USS million)

1988/90-2010

(USS million)

1988/90-2010

1988/90

(percent)

1988/90

(percent)

Coffee

+7 544

+ 24

Pulses

-194

+100 or more

Oilseeds, vegetable

450

Cotton, excf.

-265

increase, probably

oils, oil-meals

cotton textiles

large

Sugar

+3 244

decline

Animal fats

-689

increase

Rubber

♦2 924

435

Wool, excl.

increase, probably

Cocoa

+2 211

+ 24

wool textiles

large

Citrus

+1 659

410-20

Beverages

-952

Bananas

+1 927

433

(mostly alcoholic)

Other fruit

+1 989

4100-150

Meat, eggs

-1 137

4100 or more

Vegetables

♦1 756

450-70

Hides and skins.

-1 547

increase, probably

Tea

+1 055

420

excl. leather products

large

Spices

♦570

modos» Increase

Dairy products

-5 348

+ 55

Cassava/other roofs

+899

-40

Cereals

-15 962

480

Vegetable fibres,

-<-91

0 or decline

excl. cotton

Tobacco

Other products

42 498

(unspecified)

Subtotal

432 015

Sub-total

-27 011

NET BALANCE

4-5 004

DIMENSIONS Ol NI KI) FOOO AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyrighted material

Tapping the peace dividend

World military
spending in 1992
(US$ 815 000
million) equalled
the income of
49 percent of the
world's people

! !
1 1

T here were hopes when the
Cold War came to an end
that reductions in arms
expenditure, in both
developed and developing
countries, would release large
sums for investment in
development- This has still to
happen.

Global military spending
has fallen sharply - from a
peak of US$ 995 000 million
m |9X"tol/S' ••
million in 1994 |at constant
1991 prices). This cut, an
average of 4 percent a year
over the period, yielded a
saving of US$ 935 000 million.
But little of it has been spent
on human or sustainable
development. The United States
and the countries of the former
Soviet Union have led the way
in reducing spending, but in
the former most of the savings
have gone to reduce the overall
budget deficit and national
debt, while in the latter they
have been largely swallowed
up in economic crisis.

The potential for tapping
the peace dividend, however,
remains. Military spending still
places a large burden on the
world’s resources and is equal
to the total income of almost
half the world’s people. The
1 994 Httttun Development
Report estimated that a further
1 2 percent reduction would
release enough money to
provide safe drinking water
and primary health care
(including the immunization of
children) for the entire world
population, eliminate severe
undernutririon and cut
moderate undernutrition by
half. An earlier report
estimated that continuing to
reduce military spending by a
further 3-4 percent a year
while earmarking one-quarter
of the savings for aid, would
raise official development

assistance to meet the UN
target of 0.7 percent of GNP
and still leave a substantial
amount to spare for use at
home.

Considerable scope also
exists for tapping the peace
dividend by cutting military
expenditure in developing
countries. Their spending
rose by 7.5 percent a year
between I960 and 1987,
almost three times as fast as
in developed countries, while
their share in global
expenditure more than
doubled from 7 percent to
15 percent. So far they have
undertaken little disarmament.

The establishment of a
Global Demilitarization Fund

under international jurisdiction
has been proposed by Oscar
Arias, the former President of
Costa Rica and winner of the
1 987 Nobel Peace Prize. He
suggests using a proportion of
the peace dividend to achieve
further cuts in expenditures.

All countries would commit
themselves to reducing
military spending by at least
3 percent a year: developed
ones would give perhaps one-
fifth, and developing countries
perhaps one-tenth, of their
savings to the Fund. This
would then lu* used to reward
the efforts primarily, but not
exclusively, of developing
countries to disarm and
demobilize.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIM I NSIONS OK NUD ,

114

TAPPING THE PEACE DIVIDEND

The peace dividend

Global military
expenditures and
the peace dividend

USS thousand million,
1991 prices and
exchange rates

I 1 Peace
dividend

Military spending:
1H Industrial
countries
■■ Developing
countries

1987 88 90 92 94 96 98 2000

Total military spending in developing countries, 1992

8 percent of
military spending:

Would provide a
basic family
planning package to
all willing couples
and stabilize world
population by the
year 2015.

US$ 125 000 million

12 percent of military spending:

Would provide primary health care for all,
including immunization ot all children,
elimination of severe malnutrition and
reduction of moderate malnutrition by half,
and provision of safe drinking water for all.

4 percent of
military spending:

Would reduce adutt
illiteracy by half,
provide universal
primary education
and educate women
to the same level as
men.

Sourer: Human
Dcv*4op*Wfit Report 1994

A global tax for development

As official aid shrinks, development
experts are proposing new ways of
raising the money to fund development.
These could be less dependent on the
changing priorities of donor countries
and their governments. Many
envisage new forms of international
taxation.

A global income tax has been
proposed, as has a world tax on the use
of such shared resources as the oceans
(for fishing, transport or mining seabed
minerals), the Antarctic (for mining) or
space (for communications satellites).
There are also various proposals for
pollution taxes, particularly on
emissions of carbon dioxide, the main
contributor to global warming: some

countries already have domestic carbon
taxes in place.

Professor James Tobin (left), winner
of the 1 98 1 Nobel Prize for Economic
Sciences, lias proposed a worldwide tax
on international currency transactions,
which now amount to ÜSS 1 000 000
million a day. A levy of just 0.5 percent
on each transaction would raise over
USS 1 500 000 million a year. He says
that such a tax would slow down
speculative movements of capital, while
not being heavy enough to deter
commodity trade or serious
international capital commitments. The
proceeds w'ould he devoted to
international purposes and placed at the
disposal of international institutions.

DIMENSIONS OF NEED FOOD ANO AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyrighted 1 ! 1 * aterial

Promises to keep

T he Constitution of FAO is
as relevant now as when it
was adopted 50 years ago. I’he
promises made then have still
to be met in full, but
considerable progress has been
made in alleviating hunger and
poverty. The availability of
food set against the total
population of the world has
increased even though the
population has more than
doubled. World agricultural
production and international
trade in agricultural products
have grown dramatically.

There have been broad gains
in the standard of living in
terms of income, health and
education.

Despite these gains, millions
of people, mainly in developing
countries, still lack the food
that they need for a healthy,
productive and active life. At
the same time, because the
benefits of past progress have
not been shared equitably, the
gap between rich and poor,
individuals and nations alike,
has grown wider. Global food
security, which will ensure that
everyone has an adequate diet,
has yet to be put in place.

The population of the world
at the time of FAO’s founding
stood at about 2 500 million
persons. By FAO s 50th
Anniversary in 1995, it had
reached an estimated 5 700
million. In 2045, the
Population Division of the
United Nations has projected
that it could be between 7 960
million and II .VI 6 million,
according to whether one
assumes a low or high growth
rate for the years to come. No
matter which scenario may
prove the more accurate, one
thing is certain: in the
foreseeable future our planet
must sustain an increasing
number of people, bringing an
even greater demand for food.

clothing, shelter, health care
and education.

The existence of poverty and
hunger is the principal
challenge facing the world
community. As the specialized
agency responsible within the
United Nations system for
food, agriculture and rural
development, FAO clearly has
a central role in helping meet
these challenges. In fact, the
elimination of hunger and the
establishment of food security
by means of sustainable
development arc the driving
forces underlying the mission
of the Organization as it
moves towards a new century.

In celebrating the 50th
Anniversary of FAO, its
Members have chosen to
reaffirm their dedication to its
principles and to renew their
commitment to its mission.
Setting objectives for food,
agriculture and rural
development, and the
conservation of natural
resources, this partnership,
which embraces almost every
nation in the world, has agreed
to give due emphasis to:

• promoting agriculture,
forestry and fisheries as key
sectors in the quest for
sustainable economic
development;

• empowering food producers
and consumers, recognizing
the importance of those who
harvest the earth’s natural
resources and the rights of all
people to safe, nutritious food;

• making sustainable use of
natural resources for
development thereby meeting
the responsibility’ as custodians
of this heritage to present and
future generations;

• building a global
development partnership in
which all nations and peoples
can participate in order to
achieve growth with equity.

Management and sustainable use of
natural resources is vital.

A favourable environment for trade
needs to be created.

Consumers should be protected with
safe, good quality foods.

116

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE DIMENSIONS OF NEfcD - ( ¡

PROMISES TO KEEP

Using natural resources can provide Food losses con be minimized by
jobs and incomes to combat poverty. improving storage and preservation.

All people, particularly women, should be able to participate fully
in rural development.

Sustainable use and care of natural
resources should be rewarded.

Research capacity must be
strengthened in developing countries.

Food security and improved nutritional status for everyone should

be a priority in national policies and plans.

DIMENSIONS oi NU!) FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: THE FUTURE

Copyriglrod material

INDEX

body mass index (BMI)
boreal forests

location of

acid rain 69

Agenda 21 70. 105-6

Earth Summit 1992 70,86, 95, 105-6

agricultural

development support to
exports

96=8

share of all exports

(world) index
production, total and

per caput (world)

products, world trade in

73-8

GATT Uruguay Round 78, 1 12

agriculture

aid to

population economically

96=Z

active in (by region)
research and development in

centres

84=5

resources (world)

shifting focus

share in GDP (by country)

sustainable 68-70, 103.

105-6. 109-10

twenty-first century

101-4

agro-ecological zones (AEZs)
aid

106

to agriculture

food, emergency international

96-7

(world)

international flows (by country)

or trade?

AIDS

people at risk from

profile of family affected by

animals

domesticated

at risk of extinction

disease In

88,93

gene conservation

70.85

wild, products from

apomixis

aquaculture

56-7

growth of (world)

producers, top (by country)

research centres

arable land

area per caput (world)

farm family profiles

31=3

farming systems

26=7

sustainable use of

110-1

biogas

biological diversity

66-7

protection of. by biotechnology

biotechnology

86-9

apomixis

cloning

cryopreservation
New World screwworm.

eradication of

resistance to pests and disease

86, aa

rice, nitrogen-fixing

sterile insect technique (SiT)

tomatoes

carbohydrates

in human diet

cassava

21.32

export price indices

trade balance

113

children

in poor families

29-33

nutritional risks to

cities

street foods

ten largest by 2000

climate and soils

crop suitability

climate change

global warming

107-8

cloning

self-cloning seeds

coastal pollution

cocoa

export price indices

trade balance

113

coffee

export price indices

trade balance

113

commodities 73-8. 112-3

as aid

price Indices

prices

trade after GATT

Uruguay Round

78. 112-3

WTO

complementary foods

conservation

forests

62-3

penetic 66-7. 69. 85. 68. 9?

and GIS

soil and water

wildlife

Consultative Group on

International Agricultural

Research (CGIAR centres)

cotton

export price indices

trade balance

113

critical countries

crops

five steps to selection

origin of staple foods

production, future of

101

research and development

biotechnology

8Z=8

centres

84=5

shifting focus of

shortage forecasts

20,90

technology transfer opportunities 94

traditional varieties

wheat, share planted

in modem varieties

102

wild

cryopreservation

cultivation

area and land reserves (by region} 61
cultivators 26. 32

debt 80- 1

countries heavily in 81

external (developing countries) 80

external, per caput (by country) 8Û

IMF 80

deforestation 58-9, 63, 105, 109
degradation

environmental 63, 58, 104.

105&J10

Den Bosch Declaration 111

desertification 96, 104

desert locust

control of 65, 90

diet 12=5

average composition
(by country) 22=3

(world) ^

contribution of fish to (by region) 53
disease related to t4-5

healthy 12=3

digestion 12

disease

diet-related 14, 100

pesticide resistance

in plant disease 64

resistance to pests and 86

vaccine development 88

domesticated animals

at risk 6Z

disease in 88, 92-3

drought

in Africa 18

and flood, populations at risk from 18

drylands

farmers on 2Z

research centres 84

sustainable development of 110

Earth Summit 1992

Agenda 21 70. 105-6

biotechnology 88

technology transfer 95

ecotourism 83

elderly people

nutritional risks to 12

Emergency Prevention System for
Transboundary Animal and Plant
Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) 64-5
energy

dietary

daily calorie intake (by country) 14-5

expenditure (by age group) 13

requirements (by age) 13

fuel

biogas 95

consumption (by country) 105

rural 70, 95

erosion, soil 38-41.46-9

exclusive economic
fishing zones (EEZs) 54-5

exports

agricultural

commodity price indices 75=Z

share in total (world) Z3

118

INDEX DIMENSIONS OF NEED

INDEX

total value (world) 24

trade balance 112

merchandise, share in primary
commodities and manufactured
goods (by country) 24

famine 18,19,68,29

GIEWS 20.90

vulnerable groups 1£

fanning systems

in developing world 26-8

sustainable 09

in rural development ZÛ

fats and edible oils
effect of GATT Uruguay
Round on price 28

export price indices 20

role in human nutrition 12

trade balance 113

fertilizer

countries critical despite inputs of 50
and greenhouse effect 1M

integrated plant nutrition (IPN) ZÛ
use

(selected countries) 29

future (by region) 192

fish

as a complementary food 24

contribution to diet (by region) 52
farming (aquaculture) 28, 56-7
production and utilization (world) 52
fisheries, fishing 52£

aquaculture 56-7

communities, flsherfolk 28, 29
exclusive economic zones (EEZs) 59
FAO fishing areas 59

fishery commissions 54

freshwater 52.

major fishing nations 54

research and development
centres 84.

shifting focus of 83

sea 53, 54

sustainable 29

taxation on 119

technology transfer opportunities 94
top ten species caught 59

world trade in fisheries products 73-8
food

aid or trade? 79

availability of 19-20. 116

biodiversity and 59

biotechnological development of 88
diet

average (world and by country) 22-3
case studies 29-33

healthy 12-5

guide to healthy daily 12

imports, dependence on
(by country) 59

losses, post harvest 111

policy research 89

prices 78, 112

producers 25-8, 116

production 82

and global warming 107-8

(by country) 199

(by region)

future prospects

&L 102

rate of growth

yield (developing countries)

right to

1QQ

securitv 34-6.

96. 117

guidelines

199

ingredients for

34-5

technology transfer

opportunities

shortages 18, 19-20

staple foods

21-4

supplies, per caput (by region) 1GJ

food aid

Food and Agriculture Organization

of the United Nations (FAO)

history of

Q-lft

major information

systemsyprograrnmes

structure of

122

forests

5B-63

CGIAR centres

conservation of

62-3

deforestation

59.199

distribution (by country)

farmers in

26,22

Forest Resources

Assessment 1990

192

non-wood products

60-3

export price indices

forest foods

forestry

products

export price indices

world trade in

59,73-8

research and development

centres

84-5

shifting focus of

sustainable

70,156

technology transfer

opportunities

forest types

boreal

mangrove

fid

temperate

58-9

tropical

58.111

world distribution

58i3

fuel

biogas

energy consumption per caput

(by country)

195

and greenhouse effect

198

rural energy sources

gene banks 59 84-5. B6-7

General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) 78. 112

genetic

conservation 69, 70, 85, 88, 92
diversity 66-7

areas of, and origins of
areas of, and research centres 84-5
staple foods 21

engineering 86-9

material in biodiversity 59

Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) 92i2

Global Environment Monitoring
System (GEMS) 99

Global Information and Early
Warning System (GIEWS) 20, 99
global warming 107-8. 115

greenhouse effect 107-8

greenhouse gases 198

Green Revolution 82

gross domestic product
(GDP)

agricultural share in (by country) 24

gross national product

(GNP) per caput

(by country)

(selected countries)

health care

114

and poverty

herbicides

weeds resistant to

high-yielding varieties

(HYVs) 66, 82i4

hill and mountain areas

farmers in

26.32

sustainable development of

111

home gardens

food from

human development

gaps in

human rights

162

hydrological cycle

imports

agricultural trade balance

113

food imports, dependence on

(by country)

Income

disparity

in poor families

29-33

inland fisheries

aquaculture in

production

inputs, agricultural

integrated pest management

(IPM) 64, 68, ZÛ

integrated plant nutrition

(IPN)

International Conference on

Nutrition (ICN)

20,39

International Monetary Fund

(IMF)

investment

in agricultural research

irrigation

countries critical despite

fertilizer and

farmers using

future of

192

land under

(by country)

44-5

(by region)

losses

research centres

sustainable 70, 110

DIMENSIONS OF NFFD INDEX

Copyrighted material

INDEX

military spending

population

the peace dividend

114-5

ability of countries fo support their

minerals

(by country)

lute

role in human nutrition

at risk

16-8

production and trade

mortality

cities (world's ten largest by 2000) 35

infant

growth (developed vs

■

developing countries)

urban-rural

INI

world

101. 116

labour

vs agricultural production

division of

New World screwworm

potato

68-9.38

by gender. Africa

sterile insect technique {SfT)

biotechnology

land

46-9

nutrition

pests

how many people can

human requirements

12zS

research centre

the land support?

50-2

level of

poverty

reserves and cultivable area

technology transfer opportunities 94

dietary risks due to

(by region)

how the poor live

29-33

sustainable

rural

98, m

land management

rural and urban

technology transfer opportunities 94

prices

under cultivation

102

oils, edible

commodity, indices

2Ail

land use

effect of GATT Uruguay Round

food, effect of GATT Uruguay

capabilities (world)

on price

Round on

78. 112

five steps to crop selection

export price indices

primary commodities

remote sensing

trade balance

share in exports (by country)

life expectancy

production

literacy

food, prospects for

adult

global warming and

rural illiteracy

food production

107-8

livestock

pastoralism

27. 31

world, indices: jute,

breeds at risk

ËD

peace dividend

114-5

rice, shrimp, wheat

Z61Z

gene base in

people's participation

proteins

and greenhouse effect

in sustainable agriculture

role in human nutrition

meat, export price indices

and rural develooment 66-9. 98. 104.

pastoral ism

27,21

H0-I.116

research and development

pesticides

centres

resistance in pests

6á

shifting focus of

safety of

65.

radiation

technology transfer opportunities 24

species reslslant to

and remote sensing

vaccination

88, 9 3

usage

refugees

locust

(selected countries)

number of (by region)

desert, control of

pests

64-5

remote sensing

Desert Locust Plague

emergency prevention system

research/development

Prevention Group

(EMPRES)

aoricultural 82-5.86.117

species, world distribution of

integrated pest management

centres of

84-5

low-income food-deficit

(IPM) fi4,

70.68

resources

countries (UFDCs)

19. 79

locust

consumption of

1Û8

desert locust

imbalance

109

■ ■

Desert Locust Plague

Invested in research and

IUI

Prevention Group

development (world)

■ VI

worldwide distribution of

natural, for rural development ZÛ

maize

species

resource use 105-6. 1 17

biotechnology

New World screwworm

planning with GIS

centres of origin

pest control 64-5. 32

shared, taxation on

115

disease in

resistance to

64, SÊ

rice

effect of GATT Uruguay Round

sterile insect technique (SIT)

centres of origin of

on price of

tsetse fly

effect of GATT Uruguay Round on Z8

export price indices

plant disease

nitrogen-fixing varieties,

research centre

pesticide resistance in

development of

malnutrition

14, 1ÛÜ

plants

production

mangrove forest

biological diversity in

research centres

manufactured goods

biotechnology

86- 9

trade in

share in exports (by country)

Zá

research and development

82-5

rinderpest

meats

research centres

84-5

vaccine

effect of GATT Uruguay Round

resource conservation

rubber

on price

pollution

export price indices

air

RH-Q

tapping

trade balance

marino 68-9. 104

trade balance

merchandise

taxation on

115

rural

share in exports (by country)

Zá

water

energy

70.95

120

INDEX DIMENSIONS OF NF.F.D

INDEX

family profiles

29-.il

illiteracy rates

104

participation

98.117

population (selected countries) 9B

poverty
vs urban

104

population (developing countries) 34

poverty indicators
(selected countries)

rural development

and sustainable

agriculture (SARD) 68-70. 109-11

people’s participation 68-9. 98. 104.

HP-1. 116

technology transfer
opportunities 94

salinity

in irrigated soil

sanitation

Africa

and poverty

satellite

90. 115

schooling

years of

screwworm, New World

eradication of

sea fisheries

sa-5

exclusive economic zones

(EEZs)

major fishing nations

production

sea fishing areas

top ten species caught

sea level

global warming

1DB

seeds

biotechnology and

distribution

Seed Savers Exchange

Seeds of Hope

shrimp

and shrimp products

production and trade

soli

acid rain and (by area)

conservation

degradation

(by type and region)

major causes of

severity of (by country)

erosion

limits to agriculture

5ÛJ

(by region)

(world)

potential for agriculture

profiles

resources (map)

4ÛJ

soil types/associations

structure and texture

species

number (by country)

6 fiiZ

standard of living

29-33 , 11

staple foods

214

sterile insect technique (SIT) B9

sugar

export price indices

in diet

trade balance

sustainable agriculture 1D6

development

66, 106

and environment

110-11

production, future of
and rural development

1Û3

(SARD)

68-70. 109-11

elements for

ZÛ

obstacles to

ioa

people's participation

68-9. 98. 104.
1KHJ-16

sustainable development

and the environment

1Q9J1

resource use

105-6.117

UNCED

ZOaSBalOB

taxation

the peace dividend

115

tea

export price indices

trade balance

1 13

technical cooperation among

developing countries (TCDC)

04-5

technology

biogas

biological

R6-q

harmful side-effects of

109

transfers, regional and

International

94-5

temperate forests

location of

timber

export pnce indices

tissue culture

tourism

ecological

trade 73-8, ti?-3

agricultural

(by region)

fair and free 112-3. 1 16

food aid or

GATT

1 12

relations

1B9

role in development

traditional foods

revival of

22. 24

tree foods

and home gardens, for

complementary foods

tropical forests

location of

sustainable development of

111

tsetse fly

management with GIS

undemutrition

114.

(by region)

(developing regions)

1 A

United Nations (UN)

structure of

126

UN Conference on

Environment and Development

(UNCED)

za.as.ufi

urban

agglomerations (ten largest cities
by 2000) 35

industrial labourer’s family profile 3Û
poverty 16

urban-rural population
(developing countries) 34

urban-rural poverty indicators
(least developed countries) 16

Uruguay Round, GATT ZB. 112-3
effect on commodity prices ZB

WTO Z8

vitamins

role in human nutrition

lAf

water

42i5

availability per caput

43j 182=3

drinking, access to

72. 114

in Africa

drinking, and poverty

forms of, and distribution

42-3

future demand for

resource conservation

scarcity and availability

(by region)

technology transfer opportunities 94

world usage (by purpose)

weeds

herticide resistance

wheat

centre of origin

effect of GATT Uruguay Round

on price

production

Zfi

research centres

84.

share of crop planted

to modern varieties

102

trade in

Zfi

wild

foods and other

products from the

24.60

services from the

wildlife

conservation

62-3

genetic

66-7

women

gender division of labour

in poor lamllles

29i33

nutritional risks to

participation in rural development 112

wool

export pnce Indices

trade balance

World Bank

74. 80. 106

World Food Programme (WFP) Z9

World Health Organization (WHO) 36

World Trade Organization (WTO) ZB

yield

future increase

DIMENSIONS OF MID INOEX

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FAO/Netheriands Conference
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Fish for Food and Development.

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The Global Information and Early
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FAOJWHO International Conference
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Sustainable Development
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Science and Technology in the Work
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World Soil Resources.

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Cherish the Earth.

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Communication: A Key to Human
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Global Climatic Change and
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Water tor Life.

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What has /{IDS to do with Agriculture?

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Commodity Review and Outlook
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Fighting Hunger.

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Food Control and Consumer
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DIMENSIONS OF NEED FURTHER INFORMATION

Copyrighted material

Countries of the world

This map is for
identifying countries
only. The designations
employed do not imply
the expression of any
opinion whatsoever on
the part of the Food
and Agriculture
Organization of the
United Nations
concerning the legal
status of any country,
territory, city or area,
or of its authorities, or
concerning the
delimitation of its
frontiers or
boundaries.

•A

I >4 COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrighted material

COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

DIMENSIONS OF NEED COUNTRIES OF TNE WORLD

The United Nations system

UN Headquarters, New
York. The UN is
involved in every
aspect of international
We from peace-
keeping to the
environment, from
children's rights to air
safety, but It cannot
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T he United Nations (UN) is
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sovereign nations. It provides
the machinery for its Member
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matters of concern to all
humanity. It does not legislate.

The International Court of
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The General Assembly is the

UN’s main deliberative body.
All Member States are
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The Economic and Social
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The Security Council has

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The Secretariat services all
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The Trusteeship Council was

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This task having been
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a INSTRAW International Research
and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women
a UNCHS United Nations Centre for
Human Settlements (Habitat)
a UNCTAD United Nations
Conference on Trade and
Development
a UNDCP United Nations
International Drug Control
Programme

a UNDP United Nations Development
Programme

a UNEP United Nations Environment
Programme

a UNFPA United Nations Population
Fund

a UNHCR Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees

A UNICEF United Nations Children's
Fund

a UNIFEM United Nations
Development Fund for Women
a UNITAR United Nations Institute for
Training and Research
a UNU United Nations University
a WFC World Food Council

The specialized agencies and
programmes have wide
international responsibilities
for development, health and
economic, social, cultural,
educational, scientific and
technical, and other fields.

a WFP World Food Programme
a ITC International Trade Centre
UNCTAD/GATT

• FUNCTIONAL COMMISSIONS
Commission for Social
Development

Commission on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice
Commission on Human Rights
Commission on Narcotic Drugs
Commission on Science and
Technology for Development
Commission on Sustainable
Development

Commission on the Status of
Women

Commission on Population and

Development

Statistical Commission

• REGIONAL COMMISSIONS
Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA)

Economic Commission for Europe
(ECE)

Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean
(EClAC)

Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
Economic and Social Commission
for Western Asia (ESCWA)

• SESSIONAL AND STANDING
COMMISSIONS

• EXPERT. AD HOC
AND RELATED BODIES

126

THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM DIMENSIONS OF NEED

Copyrignieo material

Principal organs
of the United Nations

Security Council

General Assembly

Economic and
Social Council

International Court
of Justice

Secretariat

Trusteeship Council

• Military Staff Committee

• Standing committees and ad hoc
bodies

Peace-keeping operations

▲ Various programmes

■ ILO International Labour
Organization

■ FAO Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations

■ UNESCO United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization

■ WHO World Health Organization

World Bank Group

■ IBRD International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development

■ IDA International Development
Association

■ IFC International Finance
Corporation

■ MIGA Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency

■ IMF International Monetary Fund

■ ICAO International Civil Aviation
Organization

■ UPU Universal Postal Union

■ ITU International
Telecommunication Union

■ WMO World Meteorological
Organization

■ IMO International Maritime
Organization

■ WIPO World Intellectual Property
Organization

■ IFAD International Fund for
Agricultural Development

■ UNIDO United Nations Industrial
Development Organization

♦ WTO World Trade Organization

■ FAO Food and Agriculture
Organization of the
United Nations

Agriculture Department
Animal Production and Animal
Health

Nuclear Techniques in Food and
Agriculture (joint FAO/IAEA)

Land and Water Development
Plant Production and Protection
Agricultural Support Systems

Economic and Social Department
Agriculture and Economic
Development
Commodities and Trade
Food and Nutrition
Statistics

Fisheries Department
Fishery Policy and Planning
Fishery Resources
Fishery Industries

Forestry Department
Forestry Policy and Planning
Forest Resources
Forest Products

Sustainable Development
Department

Research, Extension and Training
Women and People’s
Participation

Rural Development and Agrarian
Reform

Technical Cooperation Department
Investment Centre
Field Operations
Policy Assistance

Regional (sub-regional) offices
Africa (Southern and East Africa)
Asia and the Pacific (the Pacific
Islands)

Latin America and the Caribbean
(the Caribbean)

The Near East (North Africa)
Europe (Central and Eastern
Europe)

Liaison offices
Representations in over 100
member nations

KEY:

▲ United Nations
programmes and
organs

(representative list
only)

■ Specialized
agencies and other
autonomous
organizations
within
the system

• Other
commissions,
committees and ad
hoc and related
bodies

♦ Cooperative
arrangements
between the UN
and the newly
established WTO
are currently under
discussion

DIMENSIONS OK NEED THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM

127

Copyrighted material

Photography credits

Page

N. Brodeur/WFP

left

T. loftas

right, top

D. Van Tran/FAO

top

E. Linusson/FAO

right

M. Boulton/FAO

bottom

F. Botts/FAO

bottom

G. Bizzarri/FAO

main picture

S. Nace/

L Dematteis/FAO

Dr R. Clark &

Panos Pictures

H. Wagner/FAO

M. Goff/Sdence

lower left

H. Null/FAO

100

FAO

Photo Library

middle

M. Boulton/FAO

102

R. Faidutti/FAO

F. Mattioli/FAO

bottom

T. Loftas

104

R. Cannarsa/FAO

T. Page/FAO

from top

FAO

105

F Mattioli/FAO

FAO

106

G. d'Onofno/FAO

top

F. Mattioli/FAO

G. Tortoli/FAO

108

G. Bizzari/FAO

left

P. Gigli/FAO

N. Cattlin/

109

top

P. Johnson/FAO

bottom

A. Wolstad/FAO

Holt Studios

bottom

G. Bizzarri/FAO

top

J. Van Acker/FAO

G. Tortoli/FAO

110

top

M. Cherry/WFP

bottom left

A. Wolstad/FAO

top

Seitre/BIOS

bottom

R. Faidutti/FAO

bottom right

T. Fenyes/FAO

bottom

Seitre/BIOS

111

top

G. Bizzarri/FAO

main picture

E. Amalove/FAO

top

E. Parker/

bottom

A. Odoul/FAO

left, from top

T. Kidd/Rex Features

Still Pictures

112

main picture

F Mattioli/FAO

F. Botts/FAO

bottom

F. Gilson/BIOS

left

G. Bizzarri/FAO

R. Faidutti/FAO

F. Mattioli/FAO

114

A. Zhigailov/

J. Arboleda/FAO

MS in Bodleian

UNEP- Select

top

A. Conti/FAO

Library/Mary Evans

115

bottom

T. Fenyes/FAO

Picture Library

Foundation

top

A. Wolstad/FAO

top

C. Boscardi/FAO

116-7 clockwise

bottom

J. Van Acker/FAO

bottom

E. Kennedy/FAO

from top left

A. Odoul/FAO

top

H. Chazine/WFP

top

F. Mattioli/FAO

P Johnson/FAO

bottom

P. Johnson/FAO

bottom

A. Conti/FAO

G. Bizzarri/FAO

top

P. Johnson/FAO

J. Van Acker/FAO

T. Page/FAO

bottom

Jenny Matthews

G. Diana/FAO

F Mattioli/FAO

K. Fennestad/FAO

P. Johnson/FAO

G. Biuarri/FAO

F. Botts/FAO

IAEA/FA0

P Johnson/FAO

L. Dematteis/FAO

left

F. Botts/FAO

F Botts/FAO

M. Marzot/FAO

top right

F. Botts/FAO

centre

FAO

from top

R. Faidutti/FAO

bottom right

IAEA/FAO

126

FAO

A. Conti/FAO

a Diana/FAO

FAO

top left

F. Botts/FAO

A. Jensen/FAO

bottom right

V. Villalobos/FAO

G. Bizzarri/FAO

panel, clockwise

left

R. Faidutti/FAO

from left

P. Johnson/FAO

right, top

F. Paladini/FAO

IAEA/FAO

bottom

F. Paladini/FAO

S. Pierbattista/FAO

left

S. Jayara)/FAO

far right

J.C. Revy/Science

main picture

F. Botts/FAO

Photo Library

P. Johnson/FAO

top: left,

F. Botts/FAO

from top

S. Hanneliua/FAO

centre

N. Cattlin/

S. Murray/

Holt Studios

Panos Pictures

bottom: left

1. de Borghegyi/FAO

A. Evans/

centre

C. Errath/FAO

Panos Pictures

right

IPGRI

H. Wilson/

right

S. Pierbattista/FAO

Panos Pictures

FAO

J. Hartley/

main image

FAO

Panos Pictures

left, from top

FAO

from top

H. Them/

FAO

UNEP-Select

FAO

R. Faidutti/FAO

top

FAO

C. Mossop/FAO

middle

FAO

G. Bizzarri/FAO

bottom

R. Faidutti/FAO

Copyrighted material

Dimensions of Need

An Atlas of Food and Agriculture

What is a healthy diet and just
how many of the 5 700 million
people in the world have one?
What do they eat and how is it
produced? Has food production
risen and can it keep on doing so?
Is there enough land and water to
support the world’s increasing
population and how must
agriculture adapt to provide
sustainable food security for
everyone into the twenty-first
century?

Dimensions of Need is
published to mark the 50th
Anniversary of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO). Its casy-to-
read text, exemplified by more
than 600 photographs, maps,
charts and diagrams, reviews the
state of the world’s food resources,
its agriculture, forests and
fisheries, and describes the kinds
of action being taken to conquer
hunger while protecting and
conserving the planet's natural
resources and environment.

“If understanding leads to
compassion, then my fervent hope
is that this hook will help the
reader understand the principal
issues int'olved in feeding the
world. It could make a difference
to 800 million chronically
undernourished people.
Dimensions of Need is about the
challenges that have, over the past
SO years, largely shaped FAO.
They can be summarized in terms
of inequity, hunger and poverty. ”

Dr Jacques Diouf

Director-General of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations

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